














T. iWi 




CONSCRIPTS of CONSCIENCE 


WORKS BY 

Caroline Atwater Mason 


Conscripts of Conscience, 

i2mo, cloth . net igi.oo 

A plea in story form fori volunteers for Medical 
Mission work in the Orient by a writer of recognized 
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every promise of equal stimulus to times of peace. 

The Binding of the Strong, The Love 
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“ The great poet steps real and convincing through 
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— Cleveland Plain Deal. 

The Little Green God. Long i6mo, 

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< The Little Green God,* and it is a tragedy of 
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Waxwing. A Missionary Story. 

Boards net 35c. 



Conscripts of Conscience 


By 

CAROLINE ATWATER ]^ASON 

Author of Lily of France," ''The Little Green 
God," "The Binding of the Strong," "World 
Missions and World Peace," "The Spell of 
Italy," etc. 



New York Chicago 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 1919, by 

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 






Ftb -5 1920 


New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London : 2 1 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh : 75 Princes Street 


©CI,A55 9 658 


CONTENTS 

I. “The Mysterious Major” . 7 

II. An Afternoon Off ... 20 

III. Miss Chilton Opens Her Heart 26 

IV. The Earles . . . .42 

V. A Shipmate . . . *54 

VI. “ You Americans Do Not Com- 

prehend” .... 63 

VII. Bachelor Maids AT Home . 77 

VIII. Concerning Ilien Siu . . 92 

IX. Conscription .... 99 

X. A Supreme Challenge . .106 

XI. A Message from the Shadow . 113 

XII. Marching Orders . . .121 

XIII. Honours 130 

XIV. A Critical Commission . .14? 


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I 

''THE MYSTERIOUS MAJOR’’ 


O N the upper deck of the U. S. 
transport Cumberland, west- 
bound, just after sunset of a 
winter day, a girl in white uniform 
with the caduceus and cape of the Red 
Cross, was pacing the deck alone. 

As she turned each time on reaching 
the very brief limit she appeared to 
have set for her walk, this girl’s eyes 
fixed themselves on the closed white 
door of a deck cabin bearing the num- 
ber 55. Her glance was keen, her step 
firm, her fresh colour suited to the 
vivid lining of her semi-military cape. 
The minutes passed, the watcher was 
7 


8 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


growing manifestly uneasy as she 
moved on beyond the white door for 
the hundredth time when a voice be- 
hind her called “Kate!’" The girl 
wheeled quickly, coming back upon her 
tracks to meet the speaker, who saluted 
her with the cool comment: 

“ How long have you been prowling, 
and why? ” 

Kate Quimby’s colour was height- 
ened as she met her mate, who was in- 
deed well worth waiting for, any one 
would say, — a girl taller than herself 
and more distinguished, although 
younger, her fine little head uncovered, 
her movements boyishly unconscious 
but full of angular grace. This girl 
wore a blue uniform, dull and faded; a 
tiny striped ribbon was fastened on her 
breast. 

“ I told you I should be here, Merle,” 


THE MYSTEEIOUS MAJOE 9 


the other said with emphasis, “ because 
I propose to-night that you shall go 
down to dinner, that you shall see 
something beside the walls of your 
stateroom. Now hurry down, but 
don’t hurry back. I shall keep my ear 
at the keyhole, trust me for that, and 
the nurse is all right. How are things 
going? ” 

“ Not so badly. The poor old dear 
has been seasick and it seems to occupy 
her mind.” 

“What a good idea! Now run 
along.” 

The young woman called Merle by 
her friend because her name was Mary 
Earle, was obviously, however, in no 
hurry for dinner, for she put her hand 
through the other’s arm and drew her 
over to the ship’s rail. The sea was 
running fresh and strong. The sun 


10 CONSOEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


had set and a gradation of delicate 
colour from the sea’s horizon line 
ranged through rose and pale yellow 
to the blue above, where a great planet 
hung, faintly luminous. 

“ How can anything be so calm as 
this sky and sea seeing the chaos which 
men have made of the earth!” mur- 
mured Kate Quimby. 

“ Oh, I don’t know,” replied her 
friend musingly; “perhaps it may 
strike you that way. I’ve an idea it 
will be harder for me to stand the un- 
seeing people when we get home than 

this aloofness of ” here she broke 

off. Two persons were passing, very 
small and feminine persons, clad in silk 
as padded and soft as their footsteps. 

“ Who are they? ” Mary Earle asked 
when they were out of hearing. “ Chi- 
nese students? ” 


^'THE MYSTEEIOUS MAJOE” 11 


“ Yes, medical. Also Christian.” 

“ Good. Where are they to go? ” 

“ Philadelphia, I believe.” 

‘‘ Oh,” plainly disappointed. “ You 
don’t suppose there’s a chance they 
might know my little Ilien Siu? ” 

“ Hardly. You know China is 
fairly well populated. But now. 
Merle, don’t stop for any more medi- 
tation. The stewards will have the 
whole dinner outfit swept by the 
board.” 

“Kate I if I should lose my ice- 
cream!” with which Mary Earle, 
laughing in mock dismay, made a dash 
for the companionway and vanished. 

Entering the gaily lighted dining sa- 
loon below for the first time since they 
had left Le Havre, three days before, 
Mary followed a steward who led her 
to her place on the right hand of Dr. 


12 CONSCEIPTS OP CONSCIENCE 


Frazier, the ship’s surgeon, whom she 
knew. He rose to receive and wel- 
come her, then presented to her Cap- 
tain Preston, the gentleman at her left. 
The chair opposite her was unoccu- 
pied. 

Having advised her seriously re- 
garding the weak and strong points of 
the menu and set the steward flying to 
bring the lady of the best. Dr. Frazier 
proceeded to question Dr. Earle (for 
so he addressed her) regarding her 
patient. Miss Wallace, the head of the 
nurses in her medical unit. As Cap- 
tain Preston was thoroughly interested 
in his dinner and as there was no 
one to be interested in their con- 
versation, Dr. Frazier was able to 
discuss the case professionally for a 
moment with the girl in the faded 
French uniform, whom he treated with 


THE MYSTEEIOUS MAJOE > ' 13 


conspicuous regard as a professional 
equal. Mary, however, had not fully 
completed her medical course, but hav- 
ing entered the service in France tech- 
nically as a qualified nurse, she had 
been pressed into the work of an army 
doctor by reason of the great need and 
of her manifest professional skill. 

Low-voiced and reticent, Mary now 
had gone so far as to acknowledge war 
neurasthenia approaching shell-shock 
as diagnosis, when, glancing up, she be- 
came aware that into the chair at Dr. 
Frazier’s left there was slipping at the 
moment a young lady in airy evening 
dress, — to her unaccustomed eyes a 
rare and radiant vision. Dr. Frazier 
concealed an instant’s sense of disap- 
pointment at the interruption as he 
rose once more to do his devoir and 
introduce Dr. Earle, of Springfield, 


14 CONSOEIPTS OF COIS’SOIENCE 


Massachusetts, to Miss Chilton, of 
Tarry town. New York. 

Miss Chilton, of Tarrytown, Mary 
Earle perceived, was young and of per- 
sonal radiance matching well her attire, 
Mary noted brown hair parted Ma- 
donna-wise over a wide brow, large 
eyes meditative in their survey, and an 
innocent, childlike mouth. 

“ I am so glad you have shown your- 
self at last. Dr. Earle! ” the newcomer 
exclaimed with an artless laugh. “ I 
have had the most immense curiosity to 
see you.” Her eyes stole to the tiny 
ribbon on Mary’s severe blue tunic. 
“To think of at last meeting a life- 
sized war heroine,” and Miss Chilton 
sighed wistfully. 

Ignoring all this, but good-humour- 
edly, Mary asked in a matter-of-fact 
tone: 


THE MYSTEEIOUS MAJOR 15 


“ Are you not the Miss Chilton of 
whom I heard as connected with the 
Red Cross canteen work near Com- 
piegne? ” 

“ Yes, I have been connected with a 
canteen there until they sent me home, 
to my sorrow,” and Miss Chilton shook 
her head pensively, but a deep flush 
crept from her throat up to her tem- 
ples, betraying a certain confusion 
which neither of her companions ap- 
peared to observe. 

Mary Earle, having achieved and 
finished the wished-for ice-cream, rose 
with a word of excuse and passed from 
the dining saloon. As she essayed the 
lowest step of the companionway it de- 
veloped a sudden tendency to rise up 
and overthrow her; accordingly she 
was not ungrateful to find her right 
arm firmly supported by Captain 


16 CONSCEIPTS OP CONSCIENCE 


Preston. Unnoticed by her he had 
come from the table behind her. 

“Some sea on to-night, Doc!” he 
remarked jocosely. 

Mary knew the type too well to be 
annoyed; her fastidiousness had been 
humanized by two years in the war 
zone of France. 

“ Glad you girls shed the light of 
your countenance on us at last at the 
table. We’ll have it a little livelier 
after this, I guess. Ain’t that Miss 
Chilton a bird though? ” 

Mary laughed frank acquiescence. 
They had reached the second deck now 
and she was for hastening forward to 
the aft stair which would lead di- 
rectly to her stateroom on the deck 
above. Captain Preston followed. 
Far down the dimly lighted recesses of 
the second cabin, as they overlooked it 


“ THE MYSTEEIOUS MAJOE ” 17 


for a moment, she noted casually a 
solitary man’s figure moving, a tall 
man with bent head, albeit military 
outline. There was nothing in the 
sight to arouse her interest; the ship 
carried some hundreds of returning 
soldiers, the greater part wounded, but 
she was startled by an exclamation at 
once astonished and exultant from the 
Captain. 

They had reached the upper deck 
now and Mary was aiming straight for 
the door of Number 55, At his excla- 
mation she halted, glancing at him 
questioningly. 

“ The mysterious Major! ” he ejac- 
ulated. “As I live, the mysterious 
Major! I vow I am not mistaken. I 
know him by his square shoulders if 
nothing else and the way he drops his 
head down. But the coincidence! 


18 CONSCBIPTS *'OF CONSCIENCE 


That’s what I’d call an A number one 
coincidence. The two of ’em at a 
time,” and he chuckled at the notion. 

Mary, anxious now for return to her 
patient, did not stop for questions, but 
the obvious incomprehension of her 
look brought challenge from the Cap- 
tain. 

“ What! you haven’t even heard of 
the Major? ” 

“ Not a word.” 

“ Gracious ! then the whole thing is 
lost on you. Say,” as she would have 
vanished from sight, “ it’s time for you 
to come out of your den and find out 
what they’re talking about on board 
the Cumberland, I don’t say but what 
you’re an M. D. all right, but you’re 
just straight girl for aught I can see 
all the same.” 

“ And I’m not an M. D. either when 


“ THE MYSTERIOUS MAJOR 19 


you come to that,” Mary called back 
from the threshold of Number 55. 
“ Not by six months. Good-night.” 

The Captain looked after her a mo- 
ment with a puzzled expression, then 
started on his after dinner twenty- 
times round of the deek, enjoying the 
flavour of a freshly lighted cigar, as 
well as that of his “ A number one co- 
incidence.” 


II 

AN AFTERNOON OFF 

A t the end of a week Miss Wal- 
lace was so far improved as to 
occupy a deck chair near her 
cabin door; also to insist upon both 
her doctor and regular nurse taking an 
afternoon off. This insistence being 
reinforced by Kate Quimby, who es- 
tablished herself in charge for the rest 
of the day, the nurse promptly van- 
ished and Mary Earle, with backward 
glances of lingering solicitude at her 
patient, betook herself to a nook which 
she had often longed to make her own 
for even one hour. This was on the 

promenade deck, — a narrow, fixed 
20 


AN AFTEENOON OFF 


21 


bench in a niche at the ship’s stem 
where no one seemed to pass. 

To be alone and still, and for the 
whole afternoon if it suited her 1 Mary 
Earle threw wide her arms, tipped her 
head back against the hard white su- 
perstructure behind her and laughed 
audibly, so delicious was the sensation. 
Presently her mental exercises were 
running on this fashion: 

“ I’m going to think about anything 
I like. . . . Let’s see, clothes would 
be interesting. How pretty that girl 
was last night in her light evening 
dress. Wouldn’t it be fun to ‘ dress 
up ’ again like that ! I suppose I shall 
when I get home. ... I shall cer- 
tainly have some new things. Lucia 
will help if Mother is too busy, and of 
course she will be. . . * I wonder if 
she will have to preside at Daughters 


22 CONSCRIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


or Dames the day I get home. . . • 
I wonder if dear Grandmother will be 
at a missionary meeting when I arrive. 
Those engagements never could be set 
aside, I remember, for any event. I 
imagine I shall be rather an event for 
a day or two. ... I wonder if 
Paul’s youngsters will really play with 
those toys in my trunk or whether they 
will just admire them. Children are 
so terribly polite . . . also uncer- 
tain. . . . Probably Lucia will 

never wear that scarf. It cost a lot, 
but she hardly ever fancies the things 
I do. ... I wish I had had a 
glimpse of that surgeon they call ‘ the 
mysterious Major ’ yesterday when 
Wallace corralled him. Poor fellow! 
I suppose he thought he could get by 
one lone woman and reach the Cap- 
tain’s cabin unobserved, — she looking 


AK AFTEENOON OFF 


23 


SO much like a mummy. It wasn’t fair 
of her. How could she intercept him, 
knowing that he wishes to escape all 
that. It wasn’t a bit like Wallace, 
dear old soul, but then, she’s not a bit 
like herself, that mustn’t be forgotten, 
not for a minute. All the same it was 
cruel. . . . Still I wonder if it is so 
very bad, after all, as she said. . . . 
I have seen things that must be worse. 
Y ou don’t mind if you can help. Let 
that go! How stupid to pretend to 
myself that I want to think! What I 
really want is not to think at all, then 
I shan’t mind not being so happy as I 
ought to be . . . and having always 
this senseless weight on my heart. . . . 
I hate myself for it but I can’t get rid 
of it. And I thought it would be the 
seventh heaven to be homeward bound. 
, . , There! I feel a tear racing 


24 CONSOEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


down each of my cheeks. Heaven 
alone knows why. . . . Silly to lie 
just to myself! I do know perfectly. 
. 8 * It is so awful to dread to go 
home and I do. . * . Now I have 
made my confession perhaps I shall 
have peace ... a little peace. . . . 
There is no use in laying everything to 
being tired. We were cold and hungry 
and muddy and dead for want of sleep 
most of the time, but that was nothing. 
Life was worth while and we loved it. 
, , , Can I make it worth while now 
on the old lines? I used to think just 
to devote myself to my profession was 
a little bit plucky, itself. It wasn’t. 
Now, the big motive being taken out of 
the work, I see well enough that at 
home what I was really after was to 
make my living by a line on which I 
had some chance to distinguish myself, 


AN AFTEENOON OFF 


25 


since the bent was in the blood. . . • 
J ust the old unending ego that never is 
really beaten. Oh, God, make me big- 
ger than I am I I can’t go back to take 
on the social comj)etings and perpetual 
strivings to ‘ make good,’ — that cheap 
old self-sufficient program. ... I 
believe I have almost forgotten how to 
pray, — except for my patients, — but 
about that, Christ understands. Lord, 
Thou knowest all things. . . . Lord, 
Thou knowest that I love Thee. ...” 


Ill 


MISS CHILTON OPENS HER HEART 

H alf an hour later Mary 
Earle opened her eyes after 
deep sleep and again laughed 
alone to find herself vexed at first flush 
at the probability that the deck steward 
with afternoon tea had passed her by. 
Wrapped as she was in her heavy rug 
she made her way out of her nook to 
the frequented part of the deck and 
stood for a moment in the sun, blink- 
ing, her hair tossed, her cheeks flushed 
with sleep. For a moment she noticed 
nobody, then a voice close at hand said: 
“ Won’t you sit down in this chair 

beside mine. Dr. Earle? The steward 
26 


MISS CHILTON OPENS HEE HEAET 27 


will be coming this way with tea very 
soon. I hate taking it alone.” 

Miss Chilton, in a big white cloak 
and white tam-o’-shanter, wrapped 
neatly in a rose-hued rug, struck Mary 
as looking like a very pretty baby in a 
baby-carriage. She preferred not to 
talk baby talk just then, but for man- 
ners’ sake sat down and the two strug- 
gled for a moment together to enfold 
her long limbs decorously in her rug, 
which displayed all the perversity of its 
nature. 

When they had placed emptied cups 
on the deck beside their chairs Mary, 
beginning to provide for retreat to her 
own stronghold, found herself detained 
by Miss Chilton’s hand laid on her arm. 
A glance into her companion’s face 
showed Mary that she was about to re- 
ceive some outpouring of confidence 


28 CONSCEIPTS OF COKSCIKN'CE 


-more or less emotional. She knew the 
tokens, so resigned herself, being 
wonted to revelation of the secrets of 
hearts on brief acquaintance. 

“ Please stop a minute more. Dr. 
Earle,” murmured Miss Chilton, with 
a pathos in her eyes and voice which 
Mary at once inwardly declared sin- 
cere. “ I know you live to help people 
who need help and I am perfectly 
wretched. May I tell you about it? 
You are the only human being on this 
ship whom I could open my heart to, 
and I think it will burst.” 

Plainly the heart must be opened. 
Mary relaxed, abandoned the glorious 
prospect of an afternoon alone and 
turned with serious attention fully to 
face the sufferer. 

“ I have only met you three times 
before this, although I always go to 


MISS CniLTON OPENS HER HEART 29 


dinner hoping you will be there, but 
the first time I saw you, you spoke of 
having heard of me as a eanteen worker 
at Compiegne. Would you mind 
telling me just exactly what you 
heard? ” 

“ Do you mean that? Do you want 
me to tell you a part of what I heard or 
all of it? There was very little any- 
way, I assure you, and it was pure gos- 
sip, nothing of any real importance.” 

“ It is right for me, I assure you, to 
know everything that was said.” 

“ Very well,” Mary returned in busi- 
nesslike fashion, after a moment’s rec- 
ollection; ‘‘ it was said that you were 
very taking and pretty, but not the 
stuff for a nurse, — I believe you came 
over as a nurse? ” Miss Chilton 
nodded. “ And that some flirtation 
with a medical officer was in the way of 


30 CONSCRIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


your amounting to very much as a can- 
teen worker.” 

“Was that all you heard?” Miss 
Chilton's cheeks had flushed at first 
but now she had grown paler than her 
wont. 

“ Every word as far as I can re- 
member.” 

“ Did you hear the name of the of- 
ficer . . .?” 

“ No. If I did I have forgotten it. 
I think those who mentioned you had 
never met you or him, supposing that 
there was a Am.” 

“ Yes, there was, but there isn't a 
grain of truth in the statement that I 
had a flirtation, Dr. Earle. I am 
afraid it is true that I wasn’t a success 
— at anything,” the girl added humbly. 
“ But the real story is so utterly differ- 
ent, so much more serious,” 


MISS CHILTOK OPENS HER HEART 31 


“ Go on, if you will,” Mary said 
kindly. 

“ I came over to France because I 
M^as engaged to a physician ten years 
older than I, Dr. Minot Balfrey. We 
had not known each other long, only 
became engaged just as he was sailing 

nearly three years ago, with the 

Medical Unit — of course, under the 
British flag. I found it too hard to 
endure the separation. No one, you 
see, outside my own family knew of my 
engagement, and I took a quick course 
in nursing and came over to he nearer 
. . . you know . . .” 

“ It has been done frequently, I 
think,” said Mary gravely. 

“ Well, I was most of the time in 
Paris or Compiegne, and he was 
around Dieulouard and I saw him only 
once before something terrible hap- 


32 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


pened, Dr. Earle. That was just 
three months ago. Perhaps I did a 
cruel thing but I surely thought it was 
my duty; certainly it was the hardest 
sacrifice a girl could make.” Miss 
Chilton’s eyes overflowed and her lips 
quivered. 

Mary waited in silence for what was 
to follow; she was very sorry for the 
girl and yet her sympathy left her 
curiously cold. 

“ You remember perhaps there was 
a very sharp engagement near Brau- 
court in the autumn? Dr. Balfrey was 
there in charge of a Medical Detach- 
ment of the Infantry. He did 

the most impossibly splendid things, 
going out over the ground swept by 
shrapnel to direct the bringing in of 
the wounded, and almost to the enemy 
lines, in the face of machine-gun fire. 


MISS CHILTON OPENS HEE HEAET 33 


He was magnificent. They made him 
Major at top speed . • • but, Dr. 
Earle, he was shockingly wounded in 
that engagement and he would not re- 
ceive attention until the boys had all 
been looked after. That is what he is 
like. And with all his pluck he is so 
very religious, — most miusual, don’t 
you think, for an army doctor? he 
prays with the poor fellows when they 
are going to die, — just like a chaplain.” 

Mary gave Miss Chilton’s hand a 
sympathetic touch. Her eyes asked 
the question which the latter hastened 
to answer. 

“ His wounds were all in the face 
and neck and very severe. When he 
was released from the hospital he came 
to me. ... I hadn’t seen him until 
then. I should never have known him, 
that is looking at him from this side,” 


34 CONSOEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


and she put her hand up to the right 
side of her face. “ He is changed be- 
yond what any one could dream, — 
hideously and beyond repair changed. 
What do you think I ought to have 
done? ... as a physician I mean, 
Doctor. I thought of the future. 
. . . I can’t very well explain, but 
you must understand what suffering 
might result if we were to go on and be 
married. . . . I felt I had not the 

right to involve innocent creatures in 
what might be an awful handicap, you 
see?” 

Mary bowed her head in sober acqui- 
escence, reflecting that here was after 
all quite the Greek theory, however 
shaky the foundation for it. 

“ And so your engagement was 
broken? ” she prompted, longing for 
the confidence to conclude. 


MISS CHILTOIT OPENS HER HEART 35 


‘‘ Yes. But, now, as a physician,” 
Miss Chilton clung to the phrase, 
“ what would you say. Dr. Earle? 
Don’t you think I did right? ” and the 
imploring eyes were fastened on 
Mary’s face. 

“ I am sorry. Miss Chilton, but it 
would be perfectly impossible for me 
to give an opinion. There is too much 
that I cannot really know, you see.” 

The girl, disappointed, held in re- 
serve her finishing stroke. 

“ You could tell better, naturally, if 
you saw Major Balfrey, and that is the 
strangest part of it all. You can see 
him any day on board. At least, it is 
difficult, but many do see him. I 
never knew it until this very morning, 
but he is on this ship. Dr. Earle. 
Think of it! Of course I should never 
have sailed on her if I had dreamed of 


36 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


such a thing. He came on at the very 
last moment, it seems, in charge of a 
batch of wounded.” 

“ You have seen him? ” 

Miss Chilton started convulsively 
and pressed her hands over her eyes. 

“ Oh, no, no. I must never see him 
again. It would be too hard for us 
both.” 

“ Does he know you are on the 
ship? ” 

“ I think not. I pray not. . . . 
The person who told me about it 
doesn’t know one word of all this, 
didn’t dream that I had ever met 
Major Balfrey. Think of listening 
while she talked on and told how some 
heartless creature had throvm him 
aside because of his injuries; how he 
will never leave the second cabin or 
steerage, fearing so to meet any one 


MISS CHILTOK OPENS HEE HEAET 37 


who will suffer from seeing his poor 
face. . • % I suppose because I 

couldn’t help fainting and because of 
what followed. ... It is too dread- 
ful to have hurt him so. . . . But 
this woman says he is simply wonder- 
ful in his care of the wounded men 
. . . they all adore him and he de- 
votes every moment ” Here Miss 

Chilton burst into the tears obviously 
inevitable. 

Dr. Earle rose, patting her sooth- 
ingly on the shoulder. 

“ Just tell me that you understand 
. . . that I was not selfish ... in 
releasing him . . .” sobbed the girl. 

“ I think you did what seemed to 
you right, dear Miss Chilton. It was 
all very, very hard, I realize that. I 
should say that Major Balfrey had the 
heavy end to bear, you know, but I am 


38 CONSOEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


sorry enough for you, too. Now I am 
going along the deck to speak to some 
girls for a few minutes, and you must 
have your cry out by yourself. It will 
do you no harm and people are not 
passing this way.” 

“ Won’t you come back at all? ” ap- 
pealed the other. 

“ Yes, very soon, but not to stay 
long.” 

With this, leaving her rug behind 
and pulling her small blue service cap 
straight as she went. Doctor Mary 
walked down the deck to a point amid- 
ships where she had caught sight of the 
two Chinese girls standing alone by the 
rail. She returned twenty minutes 
later, her own manner firm and buoy- 
ant, glad to find that the force of Miss 
Chilton’s present distress seemed to 
have spent itself. 


MISS CHILTON OPENS HEE HEAET 39 


“ Such an interesting talk I have had 
with those Chinese girls/’ Mary began, 
taking for granted some interest in the 
subject. “ They are so resolute and 
so keen mentally though they seem like 
soft, fluffy little birds before you know 
them. Fancy, they are going seven 
thousand miles from their homes and 
families, going to Johns Hopkins, to 
study bacteriology. Then they will 
return to China and do their part to 
bring in decent methods of treating 
and preventing disease.” 

“ Really splendid of them, isn’t it? ” 
commented Miss Chilton. 

“ I had a ridiculous notion that they 
might know something of a little class- 
mate of mine in New York in the 
Medical School, a Chinese girl named 
Ilien Siu. I am very fond of her. 
That was why I wished to speak with 


40 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


them; this is really the first chance I 
have had.” 

“ Did they know her? ” 

Mary shook her head. 

“ Of course they would not, China 
being so vast. These girls will only 
have to stay in America a year, I find. 
My poor little Ilien, Miss Chilton, — 
here’s heroism for us — came over alone 
into voluntary exile for a five years’ 
medical course when she was only 
eighteen. She has still a whole year of 
hospital work before she will get her 
degree.” 

“ Why does it take so much less time 
now? ” with civil show of interest. 

“ Because now, I have just been 
told, there are one or two medical 
schools for girls in China — a thing per- 
fectly new and certainly very fine. 
Somebody with brains has been at 


MISS CHILTOK OPENS HEE HEAET 41 


work over there, evidently. Now I 
will go back to my lair for a little 
while, but I want to thank you. Miss 
Chilton, for your confidence. You can 
depend upon my silence, also upon my 
being truly grieved for you. It is cer- 
tainly grievous all around.” 

Constance Chilton, essaying a wan 
smile, looked up into Mary’s face with 
tragic eyes. 

“ It is simply,” she faltered, “ that I 
am broken-hearted. That is all.” 

Mary passed on, if not perfectly 
convinced as to the girl’s broken heart, 
at least very gentle of mood toward 
her, but with a certain sternness on her 
mouth when her thought reverted to 
the no longer mysterious Major. 


IV 

THE EARLES 

‘‘X'X TELL, it was great work, 
Y Y Mary, for a fact. Csesar 
Augustus ! what ‘ cursed 
spite ’ that a girl lilce you should get 
the chance! Here I, your elder and 
better, lag superfluous as a Massachu- 
setts camp doctor until the armistice 
closes up the whole show.” Paul 
Earle’s grim set of jaw testified that 
the acrimony of his words was tem- 
pered, not assumed, for sake of cour- 
tesy to his sister. 

“ You envy me, of course, old man,” 
Mary responded, reaching out to lay 
her hand on his khaki shoulder; “ still 

you don’t quite hate me, do you? ” 

42 


THE EAELES 


43 


The brother and sister sat by the 
fireside in the library of the Earle 
homestead; the early winter twilight 
had already settled in and only the 
glow of a mass of half-burned logs in 
the chimney made each clearly visible 
to the other. 

“ I should hardly put it as strong as 
hate, I think,” replied Dr. Paul Earle 
meditatively, “ but it’s a pretty severe 
test of affection, that you must realize 
yourself. Still, we will, if you please, 
remain friends.” 

“ Quite so. It becomes highly im- 
portanH: that we ‘do when you look 
ahead and take in the fact that in just 
about five months I shall have my 
diploma, if I win through ” 

“ Of course there is a fighting chance 
that you may be plucked yet,” put in 
Paul, laughing ironically. 


44 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


“ How brotherly,” commented 
Mary. “ As I was saying, if all goes 
as planned, in about six months I shall 
affix a modest shingle out there by the 
office door, below yours, and we shall 
be partners. Really, you mustn’t al- 
low yourself to become seriously embit- 
tered; it would be awkward for the 
firm.” 

There was a moment of silence which 
Paul broke by remarking: 

“ You’ve had a species of trial mar- 
riage; I mean, a mighty good chance 
to try out this business of being a 
woman in medicine, surgery rather, in 
fact you’ve had it at the hardest. 
Women doctors in these parts seldom 
have to help repair bridges under bom- 
bardment, or perform operations on 
men encased in filth and mud, or do 
various other of those stunts you have 


THE EAELES 


45 


been up against. But all this apart, 
you ought to have a pretty clear notion 
now of how you like the job, shutting 
off the hereditary and conscientious 
and feministic prepossessions in which 
of old you indulged pretty freely. At 
close range, how do you like it? Do 
you really want to go on? ” 

“ I really do, although I am not so 
keen for it as I was over there, Paul. 
My practice of medicine seems com- 
paratively unimportant I’ll have to ad- 
mit here at home, but I shall get used 
to that, I suppose. I can’t say that 
any one in Springfield seems to be suf- 
fering or dying for lack of my atten- 
tion.” 

“ Oh, no, you’ve got to learn now to 
put up with weaker stimuli. Isn’t it 
Mrs. Deland? — somebody says, ‘we 
have fed on champagne and red pepper 


46 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


and now our diet is to be skimmed 
milk ’? ” 

“ Yes,” Mary returned a little pen- 
sively, “ that describes my present sen- 
sations very neatly. However, unless 
you really hate me as a partner, Paul, 
I am for carrying on. Do you see any- 
thing better for me to do? ” 

‘‘ Better? Oh, well, that depends, 
of course, on the point of view. You’re 
making a bully doctor, that I’ll have to 
admit in spite of my perfectly natural 
prejudice against you,” again the 
whimsical smile. Oh, yes, Mary, I 
rather like the notion of our practising 
together myself; since you’ve had this 
war experience I’m much more for it 
than I ever was before. You’re made 
of mighty good material and I am 
proud as Lucifer of you, if the tmth 
were to leak out.” 


THE EAELES 


47 


“ You say you like the notion your- 
self. Does that mean that Mother 
doesn’t? ” Mary bent forward and 
with shovel and tongs urged the half- 
burnt logs into flame. This done she 
looked searchingly into her brother’s 
face. 

Paul shrugged his shoulders slightly. , 

“ I suppose she talks to you more 
freely than she would to me,” Mary 
added. “ She is such a splendid sport 

she wouldn’t like ” here she broke 

off. 

“ That’s right. Mother plays the 
game according to the rules. I don’t 
think she has ever had the slightest 
qualm at the woman-in-medicine no- 
tion per se; unluckily she has got it into 
her head that you’re handsome, you 
know, or something of the sort, and 


so 


48 CONSOEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


“ Paul!” Mary broke in, laughing. 
“ You’ve never been disturbed with 
hesitation for any such reason.” 

“ Never. Lucia and I — of course 
you can trust your sister-in-law and 
your brother for that, — have never 
agreed with Mamma on that point. 
‘ Not handsome, but distinguished ’ is 
our formula; quite nice and fraternal, 
don’t you think? ” 

With these words Paul rose. Some 
one was coming in at the far end of the 
dim, book-lined room. 

“ Here you are, Mother,” he called, 
and drew a cushioned chair to the fen- 
der between himself and Mary. 

“ How perfect,” sighed Mrs. Earle, 
as she seated herself, holding out a 
hand to each, her look finely maternal. 
“ I handed over the meeting to Mrs. 
Patton and hurried home, ho^^ing for 


THE EAELES 


49 


this twenty minutes together before 
tea. Now — don’t stand — but sit, and 
deliver just what you were talking 
about when I came in. Let’s go right 
on from where you broke off. Your 
voices sounded so interesting.” 

“ Oh, we were simply speaking of 
the fact that you are not very keen 
about Mary’s practising medicine, 
partly, as I understand it, because she 
is rather good-looking, and all that. 
That you would, after all, be glad to 
have her reconsider, ending her pro- 
fessional career with this military dis- 
tinction that she has contrived to pull 
off.” 

Mrs. Earle laughed low and fondly. 
Paul pleased her, habitually. 

“ It does seem rather a pity,” she 
commented, her eyes on the fire, Mary’s 
hand still in hers. 


60 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


“ But really, Mother, I don’t see 
why,” the girl began with some eager- 
ness; “ my life would be seclusion and 
leisure compared with the life you live. 
Just look at what you do! you are 
president of the Woman’s Society of 
the church and secretary of the Tues- 
day Club, and then there are the 
Daughters and Dames, the Liberty 
Loan Association, the Library Com- 
mittee — chairman of that — the Red 
Cross, the National Defense, Food 

Conservation, and ” Here Mrs. 

Earle stopped her, laughing. 

“ Perfectly true, Mary. But I am 
fifty-four years old. I have very re- 
cently, while you were away, clarified 
my own thinking by a new — formula, 
let us call it. I heard Paul talking of 
formulas when I came in. Between 
twenty and forty-five for the sake of 


THE EAELES 


61 


round numbers — I would say — a 
woman’s most delightful quality — I 
mean aside from religion and morals, 
is glamour.” 

“Glamour!” cried the son and 
daughter in concert. “ What can you 
mean? ” 

“ Look in your dictionary. It is a 
fresh synonym for charm, a word of 
which I am tired; also it means more 
and other; perhaps it has a touch of 
mystery. It is a thing superadded to 
looks, wit and grace, and, from the per- 
sonal point of view, it is the thing most 
to be desired. After fifty it would be 
superfluous if it persisted, which it 
does not.” 

“ There is nothing like glamour 
about me,” laughed Mary Earle 
frankly. 

“ That is not proof that there might 


62 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


not be if you gave yourself a chance. 
I haven’t the smallest doubt that Mary 
can succeed respectably in medicine; 
she might, just as Paul might, become 
even distinguished. Your father did, 
and you are both like him. But to win 
your way in this or any other profes- 
sion of a like nature, Mary, you must 
forfeit ” 

“ Glamour! ” cried Mary. “ I see. 
It doesn’t comport with the woman 
doctor, — ‘ there are no mystical mean- 
ings in fruit of that colour.’ There- 
fore, in order to gain this iDrecious in- 
definable something, you would like me 
to stay at home like the other girls, go 
in moderately for philanthropy and re- 
ligion, for society, bridge, amateur dra- 
matics and dancing. ‘ All things by 
turns and nothing long! ’ How I 
should hate such a life! My father’s 


THE EAELES 


63 


daughter! Why should I any more 
than my father’s son? ” 

Mary was interrupted at this point 
by the entrance of Mrs. Paul Earle 
with two cherubic children whose effect 
was to render Mrs. Earle instanta- 
neously all grandmother, Paul all 
father, and Mary all fond aunt. As 
the maid appeared with the tea-tray at 
one door, a soft rustle of silk was heard 
at another, and there came in to join 
the group around the fireplace a white- 
haired woman, tall, slender and erect. 
There was a headlong laish of the chil- 
dren in her direction and a general 
chorus of joy that “ Granny was in 
time for tea.” Plainly, Mrs. Earle’s 
mother, Mrs. Lorimer, was popular in 
the family. 


V 

A SHIPMATE 

‘‘y^APTAIN PRESTON, U. 
ft i S. A.” Maiy Earle read the 
card presented to her on a 
tray, looked at the waiting maid, and, 
pronouncing the name aloud, said with 
a puzzled expression: 

“ Who is Captain Preston? I am 
sure I can’t think.” At the moment 
she was standing before her mirror 
fastening in place a new hat with soft 
plumes which interested her. 

“ I’m sorry, Miss Mary, but I can’t 
tell you that, for I never saw him be- 
fore. He’s a fine set-up officer, any- 
how ” 


54 


A SHIPMATE 


55 


“ Oh, of course, Lizzie,” Mary inter- 
rupted, “ I know now perfectly well. 
But, dear me, how can I stop to talk 
with him when I have promised to call 
at the parish house for Granny, and 
I’ve told the children they should have 

a bit of a drive first, and ” Mary 

paused, regarded the back of her head 
attentively for a moment in a hand 
glass, then, with a smile at Lizzie which 
infused sudden warmth into the girl’s 
soul, she summed up the situation with, 
“ It’s all right. I’ll go down and see 
him. Will you give Frank word not 
to bring out the car until I send for him 
and then tell the children Aunt Mary 
will give them their drive after she 
brings Grandmother home instead of 
before.” 

With this Mary ran down to the 
drawing-room, where she received her 


66 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


shipmate of the Cumberland with un- 
affected but not exaggerated cordial- 
ity. 

“ I won’t hold you up, Doctor, not 
on your life. Don’t worry. I guess I 
Imow that every minute in the day 
counts for a professional woman,” the 
Captain thus launched forth on his 
conversational activity. “ You see it’s 
this way: — I’m headed for Camp 
Devens, but as I got near Springfield 
this afternoon thinks I, how I’d like to 
look in and see Dr. Earle, so I stopped 
off just a train. You know you and 
I hit it off pretty well there on board, 
though I never saw much of you, not 
half as much as I wanted to. My 
goodness though, don’t you look differ- 
ent in civilian togs! Say, but I just 
loved the way you looked on the ship, 
too, in that old blue uniform ; it set you 


A SHIPMATE 


57 


off in a class by yourself, and there’s 
where you belong.” 

Mary made a merry interruption 
seeking to turn aside the flow of per- 
sonalities but her success was not 
marked. Looking around him Cap- 
tain Preston took up his thread with 
the comment: 

“ Do you know while I’ve sat here 
waiting for you to come down I 
couldn’t help thinking how this place 
just exaetly fits you. To a T. Seems 
as if, if anybody’ d asked me before I 
came what sort of a place you lived 
in, I should have gone ahead and de- 
scribed this very house, the way it 
stands back from the street, and 
the street, too — that keep-yourself-to- 
yourself look of it! I knew when I 
turned the corner you’d live on it.” 

“ Yes, that wouldn’t be difficult. 


58 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


would it? the name being on the lamp- 
post,” laughed Mary. 

“ Oh, now you’re guying me. That 
isn’t what I mean. You understand 
all right. But those old family por- 
traits — they just find me. I’ve quite 
a taste for art myself, also for ances- 
tors. I’ve got two or three pretty fair 
ones to my own account. But when it 
comes to old mahogany I’ll confess I’m 
not in it. This you’ve got here is out 
of sight. But somehow a chap like 
me don’t feel uneasy here, it’s all 

so ” here the Captain hesitated for 

the first time. 

‘‘ Unpretentious? ” 

“ Yes, that’s it. Now when I ran 
up to Albany from New York the 
other day I got in on the other side. 
It was like this: I saw quite a bit of 
that Constance Chilton on board, per- 


A SHIPMATE 


59 


haps you may have noticed it, though I 
guess you didn’t notice much outside 
your patient. We got rather chummy, 
to tell the truth, there toward the last. 
So when I was going to pass through 
Tarrytown I just thought I’d drop off 
the train, the same as I have to-day, 
and make her a call. But it was not 
for mine! Run right along, son, and 
mind your own, that’s what I said to 
myself when I got to the gates. They 
were enough for me — coat of arms, 
trick lions, all that sort of thing. Why 
it’s a regular nobleman’s estate, that 
Chilton outfit, and as I stood there out 
rolled a limousine — a Packard de luxe 
— with Miss Chilton herself in the ton- 
neau and two chauffeurs in livery in 
front. She never saw me, you bet. I 
caught the next train sure enough,” 
and the Captain shook his head laugh- 


60 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


ing ruefully at his own discom- 
fiture. 

“ I think it meant a great deal for a 
girl brought up in that fashion to go 
out as a nurse the way Miss Chilton 
did,” remarked Mary. 

The Captain gave a shrug denoting 
lukewarm sympathy with the observa- 
tion, then volunteered the comment: 

“ There’s Balfrey, poor old chap, 
our ‘ mysterious Major,’ you remem- 
ber? I don’t suppose you’ve heard 
anything more of him since we 
landed? ” 

‘‘No. Have you?” 

“Not a word, though I’ve haunted 
all the officers’ clubs in New York the 
past week and kept my eyes and ears 
open. I’d like to know what he’s go- 
ing in for next. I’ve an idea of my 
own that he’s somewhere this minute in 


A SHIPMATE 


61 


dry dock, getting mended up, you 
know, the way they do.” 

“ They certainly are very successful 
in that line since the war,” Mary re- 
sponded, then rising she sent word for 
the family car to be brought to the 
door. 

Having explained her engagement, 
Mary gladdened the soldier’s honest 
heart including him in the expedi- 
tion to the extent of conveying him to 
the station and speeding him on his 
way. Thus the Captain departed with 
a warm sense that he had been a wel- 
come guest, not an intruder. No faint- 
est suspicion rose within him as he 
travelled on toward his camp, that Dr. 
Earle, for an appreciable length of 
time, might have been unable to recall 
who he was or where she had known 
him. “ That girl is just one peach,” 


62 COIS^SCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


he reflected, his face touched with un- 
usual gentleness ; “ she’s thoroughbred 
and she’s all business sure enough, but 
she’s got such a big heart and such a 
way with her, — puts a fellow at his ease 
the first minute.” 


VI 


‘‘YOU AMERICANS DO NOT 
COMPREHEND 

M eanwhile Mary Earle 
reached the parish house 
where was held at this hour 
of this particular afternoon the peri- 
odical meeting of the State Board of 
Foreign Missions, of which Mrs. Lori- 
iner at seventy-five was a still indis- 
pensable member. By no means, how- 
ever, was Mary inclined to venture into 
the presence of the Board, regarded by 
her from her childhood as august to a 
degree. She ax^proached the door of 
the room wherein she supposed it gath- 
ered, but so complete was the silence, 

no sound coming to Her through the 
63 


64 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


massive, closed doors, that fear seized 
her lest, being later than she had in- 
tended, the meeting had adjourned. 
Disturbed at the idea of seeming guilty 
of disregarding the promise to call for 
her grandmother, Mary softly opened 
the door. Expecting to find the place 
empty she took a step across the thresh- 
old. A hand reached out even as she 
would have drawn back, she found her- 
self gently detained, and her grand- 
mother, whose place was just before 
the door, drew her to a seat near her 
before she could demur. 

“ I was wishing that you would 
come, Mary,” Mrs. Lorimer whispered. 
“ I know you will be interested in what 
is on the program now. Business took 
long, but it is just over and this last 
half hour of the meeting is free to our 
friends.” 


''YOU DO NOT COMPEEHEND'' 65 


In fact as she spoke an inner door 
was pushed open and six or eight 
young women filed quietly into the 
room and took seats in the background. 
Looking around her Mary observed 
with a certain curiosity the score or 
more of older women seated about the 
long, polished table which occupied the 
middle of the committee chamber. 
Some of them knew and recognized her 
with a smile of affectionate greeting; 
others were strangers. All of them, 
she perceived, were women of charac- 
ter, distinction and serious purpose; 
certain of them were young; others, 
like her grandmother, were vener- 
able. 

For Mary’s further impressions of 
the occasion, as well as for certain 
other concerns of hers, we may refer to 
a letter written that same evening to 


66 CONSCEIPTS OP CONSCIENCE 


her friend, Kate Quimby, in New 
York. 

“ Your letter makes me more than 
ever eager to get back to college,” ran 
the words. “ You will see me some day 
next week, I think. My family are 
sweetly reasonable, never think of in- 
terfering with my movements, and yet 
I find myself so loved in this house 
that it sometimes fairly makes me cry. 
Also it compensates for the sterner en- 
tourage we have left behind. I know 
you will feel as I do. Life here at 
home is even dearer than we dreamed 
it, and yet how quickly you and I 
would leave it all again if we were to 
hear the call of desperate need over- 
seas as we did two years ago. 

“ But to return to the Earles ! 
Really, Kate, as a unit they are to be 
recommended; you positivelj^ must 


“YOU DO NOT COMPEEHEND^^ 67 


know them before long and they you. 
But they are the busiest set you ever 
eneountered and no one of them con- 
cerns herself overmuch with the affairs 
of the others. It occurs to me that, as 
a family, we keep our interests in 
water-tight compartments. Nothing 
much either gets in or out. 

“ For example, as long as I have 
known her, my grandmother has held 
an official position, somewhat conspicu- 
ous, in her State Mission Board. I 
suppose Mother (who is all for mis- 
sions, you know, as well as for a thou- 
sand other things) may talk to Granny 
at times about her Board matters, but I 
never heard her. Each goes her own 
way. For my own part, since I be- 
came too big to save pennies in a 
painted box for the heathen, I have dis- 
missed them practically from my mind, 


68 CONSCEIPTS OP CONSCIENCE 

I never considered the matter definitely 
anyway, but I believe I had a sense 
that, with a fraction of Mother and all 
of Grandmother to look after them, 
they would do pretty well. I fancy 
you have been better trained; it seems 
to me I remember a missionary maga- 
zine on your desk last year, you proper 
child. Perhaps you took the precau- 
tion not to read it, though. 

“ To-day something rather interest- 
ing happened. By fair means or other- 
wise I was smuggled into the Counsels 
of the Saints, by which I mean into 
Granny’s most noble Mission Board 
Meeting and what I heard from a shy 
and slender woman, a missionary from 
some (to me) vague -part of India, at 
home ‘ on furlough ’ has made a 
strange impression on my mind. Prob- 
ably this is because said mind is virgin 


“YOU DO NOT COMPEEHEND»> 69 


soil, for it is a fact that I have lived in 
this Christian family of mine essen- 
tially in heathen darkness as far as 
heathen are concerned. My own 
fault, of course. 

“ But, anyway, it wasn’t what this 
furloughed saint said so much as what 
she was. I must tell you, at this point, 
that Mother has a new hobby, which is 
that it is most important for a woman 
up to forty-five to preserve in herself a 
certain something which she calls 
‘ glamour ’ and which she defines as 
charm but also more than charm, in- 
cluding, if I understand her, a touch of 
mystery. It is something, my dear, 
you are hereby wamed, which girls 
who go in for medicine and such like 
pursuits, do not possess. But that is 
neither here nor there. 

** To tell the truth I thought dear 


70 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIEKCB 


Mamma just a trifle ridiculous a week 
ago when she talked about this quality 
of glamour, but I was straightway 
brought to book this veiy afternoon. 
For the lady from India had it, — but 
not precisely Mamma’s brand. I di- 
vined in five minutes her possession of 
— charm, yet of something far beyond 
charm. I cannot hope to convey it to 
you better than Mother conveyed her 
idea to me. But try to realize, if you 
can, Katie, dear, this slender, gracile, 
perhaps almost ascetic figure wearing 
its best, carefully preserved, black taf- 
feta gown with a slight gold chain 
(which you knew with certainty to 
have belonged to her dead mother) 
around a throat as white as any book 
heroine’s and much more modestly con- 
cealed than are throats of present day 
heroines. Then you must note her 


<<YOU DO NOT COMPREHEND 71 


hair, quite gray, and gray quite too 
soon, brushed off severely but fluffing 
itself out spontaneously to wave near 
delicately pencilled black eyebrows, the 
face rather too pale and in general thin 
and care-worn, the features refined but 
not remarkable, the whole face domi- 
nated by the eyes. There dwelt the 
glamour. Kate, I can’t describe them, 
I can only feel them; — eyes that had 
faced confusion worse than death, fear- 
lessly though the creature was so frail 
(and not young like us) among a peo- 
ple (this was taken quite as a matter 
of course) who are, when in their natu- 
ral state, half-naked savages capable of 
any deed of violence you can conceive. 

“ Wlien she smiled, the light in this 
woman’s eyes seemed to me to have 
something in it like what I think must 
be in Christ’s eyes — a joy, a pity, an 


72 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


anguish and a hope unutterable. You 
see what I try to show you is a mystery. 

“ Being of a practical turn you will 
want to know what my furloughed 
saint discoursed about. There I am 
rather at a loss. She was an official 
reporting to those who had sent her, on 
the institutions which they sustain in a 
jDerfectly matter-of-fact fashion. Lit- 
tle touches like the fearsome savages, 
whose minds she had formerly tutored, 
were presupposed and had to be 
sketched in afterwards for me by 
Granny. I believe she has recently 
been given an educational post in some 
semi-civilized Hindu centre; she gave 
certain statistics of a school, also of a 
hosx)ital. This last, of course, inter- 
ested me and I could see it did my fur- 
loughed saint also. Her eyes grew 
larger and more solemn when she spoke 


‘‘YOU BO NOT COMPEEHENB’> 73 


of little native girls in this hospital who 
at twelve are wives and mothers, and 
child outcasts of conditions infinitely 
worse. 

“ These conditions were taken by the 
Board women as altogether familiar, 
but I knew by the faces of a few out- 
siders how my o^vn must have changed, 
‘ hardened worldling ’ as I felt in that 
pi'esence. And then the missionaiy, 
in answer to questions put by the of- 
ficers, admitted that for lack of Chris- 
tian women physicians this hospital, 
the only one anywhere in the region, is 
now likely to be closed. I almost 
jumped up and declared that such pro- 
ceeding would be a crime, but I looked 
at Granny’s dear old face and saw, un- 
der all its seriousness, that this was not 
a new or unexpected thing. For sweet 
mercy’s sake, if they are going to oj)en 


74 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


hospitals, Kate, why don’t they see to 
it that they have doetors to run them? 
, . . I stop right here, my dear, 

pereeiving my question might be an- 
swered in a number of different ways, 
none particularly gratifying in this 
twentieth century of the Christian 
era. 

“ Afterwards I met the missionary 
lady a minute, Gi’anny insisted, — and, 
of course, I put a revised version of 
this question to her. She made abso- 
lutely no answer but I shall not forget, 
at least not as quickly as I do most 
things, the shadow on her face as her 
eyes met mine in a long look. It 
meant . . . well, it seemed to mean 
everything in earth and heaven that 
counts. . . . 

“ I conclude that all the strong 
stimuli which we have stressed so much 


‘‘YOU DO NOT COMPEEHEND^’ 75 


were not left behind after all when we 
left France. 

“Till we meet again! This is no 
answer to your letter. Funny, Miss 
Chilton trying to hunt me up ! I heard 
of her again, this very afternoon, in an 
unexpected way. It appears that she 
belongs to that obnoxious class, the 
very rich, but don’t lay that up against 
her, much as you may be inclined to. 
I know harmless people of that ilk al- 
ways irritate you, probably because 
they are by way of doing so much 
harm. But Miss Chilton is not really 
responsible for the fact that her 
worldly goods are on a large scale or 
her soul — a little inadequate, shall we 
say? I like her myself and think we 
owe her something for taking the trou- 
ble to be so pretty. 

“ I am very pleased that you have 


76 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


taken the Waverley Place apartment. 
It sounds most livable. Let’s have the 
net curtains and be really dainty. It’s 
to be our last ‘ go ’ as girls, Kate. 

“Your Merle.” 

“ P. S. — AVhat the look in that 
woman’s eyes was like this afternoon, 
when she did not answer my question, 
I have discovered now. It was the 
look I met in the faces of the French 
peoiDle when I first went over there 
when word used to come that our boys 
wouldn’t volunteer in numbers suffi- 
cient and the Government would have 
to resort to conscription. It said sim- 
You Americans do not compre- 
hend. I used to dread to meet it.” 


VII 

BACHELOE MAIDS AT HOME 

T he bachelor-maid apartment 
inhabited by the two medical 
students, Mary Earle and 
Kate Quimby, was situated in a brick 
house in Waverley Place, not far re- 
moved from Washington Square. 
The windows of this ai)artment, being 
on the top floor, looked upon roofs and 
chimnej^s, but, at four o’clock of a late 
March afternoon, gave entrance to 
sunshine in full flood. 

The living-room, with rosy-cretonne- 
covered wicker chairs, good j)ictures, 
many books, bright brasses, stood the 
search-light of the sun well, being kept, 

day in, day out, surgically clean by its 
77 


78 CONSCRIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


indwellers. The high light on the 
room’s blithesomeness at the moment 
was in the bay-window, where the sun 
played unhindered upon shining silver 
and porcelain in brave array on the 
wide, low tea-table. 

The equipment might have seemed 
to an outsider comx5lete, but in the back 
of Mary Earle’s mind, as she stood 
talking to a slowly departing guest, 
lurked an uneasy consciousness that all 
was not in readiness. This sense was 
quickened by the manner in which a 
certain door discreetly moved a few 
inches at brief intervals. Mary sur- 
mised that Kate Quimby hovered be- 
hind that door, watching for a chance 
to come in and put the teakettle over 
the alcohol lamp. This chance she 
could hardly have until Mary’s guest 
should depart, not merely threaten 


BACHELOE MAIDS AT HOME 79 


The guest was Constance Chilton, 
and for a half hour she had monopo- 
lized Mary’s attention. She was ex- 
quisitely dressed and prettier than she 
had been at sea; apparently she was 
reconciled to life on its present basis 
although pensive still at moments. 
Her limousine waited in the street be- 
low. She had come hoping to take 
Mary for a drive in the park ; this being 
declined, since it was Mary’s afternoon 
at home, she was forced to accept dis- 
appointment, provisionally, and since 
she declined to remain for tea, in the 
end, to leave. 

In rushed Kate Quimby then, brass 
teakettle in hand. 

“ Is she actually gone at last? ” she 
cried, impatience unconcealed. ‘‘ Look 
at the clock, will you? and this water 
cold, to please you, to start with. 


80 CONSCRIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


What did Chilton want anyway, 
Merle? Do for pity’s sake get busy 
and cut those lemons. Some one will 
be upon us before anything is ready.” 

“Don’t be cross, Katie. I’m not 
ashamed to cut a lemon before folks, 
myself. What did she want? Ahnost 
anything she couldn’t have. To take 
me to drive, to take me to opera next 
Saturday, to have me spend a week- 
end at her house up in Tarry town.” 

“Dear, dear! she is hard hit, isn’t 
she? ” cried Kate disapprovingly. “ Is 
it an honest, out-and-out crush? or is 
she a dishonest, in-and-in schemer, 
with her baby mouth and innocent 
eyes? ” 

“ What nonsense,” Mary returned 
shortly, obviously ill-pleased. “ I 
don’t care overmuch for the type, you 
know very well, but there is no need 


BACHELOR MAIDS AT HOME 81 


of looking upon her with dark suspi- 
cion, Kate, or even taking ” 

A tapping of the antique brass 
knocker on the outer door, announcing 
the arrival of a visitor, cut Mary short. 
In twenty minutes an animated group 
of young women were gathered about 
the tea-table and with each new arrival 
and each fresh cup of tea the anima- 
tion grew. Most of the company were 
Mary Earle’s classmates in medical 
school. Kate Quimby was one class 
behind her. 

“ I wonder if Ilien isn’t coming in 
to-day,” Mary remarked as she drew 
the last available chair up into the 
circle. “ I quite expected her.” 

“ Oh, yes, sHe will be here,” re- 
sponded a girl called by her friends 
Leslie, “ and Janet Gibson is coming 
with her. I met them on Twenty- 


82 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


third Street and Ilien told me she was 
on her way here but had a little shop- 
IDing to do first. Isn’t she the cleverest 
thing, Merle? ” 

Mary nodded but did not smile. 

“ I can’t help thinking how soon we 
shall lose her, — a year hence she will be 
on her way back to China,” she said 
soberly. 

“ Oh, well, ‘ don’t be sorrowful, dar- 
ling,’ ” interposed a handsome incisive 
young woman, more mature than the 
others ; “ as far as that goes, we shall 
all be scattering far and wide in less 
than three months. I saw a crocus in 
bloom this morning.” 

“ It’s awfully near, but you’ll all be 
in this country. Miss Roberts, except 
Ilien, won’t you? ” questioned Kate 
Quimby. 

I rather expect to go to Servia 


BACHELOE MAIDS AT HOME 83 


under the M. W. N. A.’s War Com- 
mittee to do after- war work,” was the 
answer, ‘‘ that is, if I get the appoint- 
ment.” 

“ It’s not very much farther to go on 
to India,” commented Kate. “ Why 
does no one think of that? I judge 
there is a field for all of us there, — 
forty million secluded women, they 
say, who cannot be medically treated 
by the brethren.” 

“ India? Where did you learn so 
much of India, mon enfant? ” a plump, 
dark-eyed girl inquired with a merry 
but slightly derisive laugh. “ It is not 
exactly alluring, is it? God’s country 
for me, at least.” 

“ Oh, Betty, I wish you would- 
n’t ” here Mary Earle broke off. 

IManifestly she had been startled by 
Kate’s unlooked-for challenge. 


84 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


“ Wouldn’t what? ” 

‘‘ Speak as if we were favourite, not 
fortunate. Never mind, dear. Say 
it, if you like — excuse me! You mean 
to go in for Baby Hygiene, don’t you, 
Betty? ” 

“ No, I have given that up. There 
is a really fine opening in Mottville, 
and I have decided on that. It’s a fac- 
tory town and that is best for a quick 
start. And there are only sixty doc- 
tors in the place, counting osteo- 
paths.” 

“ What is the population? ” asked 
Miss Roberts. 

“ Somewhere around fifty thousand, 
I thinly.” 

“ I wish I knew what I was going to 
do,” remarked a girl called Bertha, con- 
spicuous for intelligence rather than 
personal attractiveness. ‘‘ I guess I 


BACHELOE MAIDS AT HOME 85 


shall take up laboratory work of some 
kind. I’m perfectly sure I shall never 
make a success as a practitioner. I 
haven’t the right way with me.” 

“ Nonsense ! ” declared Betty. “No 
one makes a success for years in gen- 
eral practice, except in a factory town. 
I think the more attractive you are the 
less they want you. For my part I 
wish there were about half as many 
doctors as there are in the United 
States.” 

“ Of course there are some girls who 
have unusual qualifications of some 
kind,” put in Leslie soberly. “ For 
them it is different.” 

“Yes, like Merle,” added Bertha 
wistfully. 

“ Oh, Merle! ” was called in chorus. 

“ Of course she’s in a class by her- 
self,” the theme was elaborated by 


86 CONSCRIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


Miss Roberts. “ She has not only her 
nurse’s training but her father’s repu- 
tation to inherit and her brother’s prae- 
tice to step into, ready-made for her. 
Few have both a pull and a partner 
like you, Dr. Earle.” 

“ Yes, and you have your own home 
to live in too,” added Betty, ‘‘ instead 
of a garret somewhere and ‘ mealing 
out.’ And then all this is only the 
beginning.” 

“ Of course it is.” Bertha, who had 
been trying hard to be heard, now reso- 
lutely bore down the other voices. “ It 
was I who brought Merle in — I don’t 
care whether she likes it or not, I judge 
not — but I wasn’t thinking for a mo- 
ment of these . . .” 

“ Meretricious advantages? ” Kate 
Quimby interjected as the speaker hes- 
itated. Ignoring the general laugh 


BACHELOE MAIDS AT HOME 87 


Bertha persisted, saying with empha- 
sis: 

“ It is what Merle has done over in 
France, her record, her work, most of 
all herself ” 

To Mary Earle’s relief the telephone 
rang just then and she was able to ex- 
tricate herself from the toils of talk 
which had taken a turn little pleasing 
to her. Hurrying into a small passage 
and closing the door firmly behind her, 
she took down the telephone receiver. 
A man’s voice, with marked distinct- 
ness, asked to speak to Dr. Mary 
Earle. Then, finding it was she who 
had answered the call, the voice said: 

“ Miss Earle, would it be possible 
for you to come to the Woman’s Med- 
ical College Hospital? You are 
needed at once.” 


“ I can come at once.” 


88 CONSOEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


“ Thank you. Good-bye.” The 
speaker rang off. Mary proeeeded 
without delay to dress for the street. 
In five minutes she reentered the liv- 
ing-roorfl and when she could make 
herself heard above the tumult of dis- 
cussion she excused herself to her 
friends, saying there had been an 
emergency call from the hospital. As 
she closed the door voices were raised 
in lively exclamations. 

“ Wouldn’t you know Merle would 
be the one to get the call ! ” 

She is the fashion already.” 

“ She has the hospital staff at her 
feet just as she has us.” 

* ^ 

When Mary reached the hospital 
she was met by a message from Miss 
Gibson, the head nurse, asking her to 
come to a certain private room in the 


BACHELOR MAIDS AT HOME 89 


long annex. Asking no questions 
Mary hastened thither, prescience of 
ill quickening her steps. Miss Gibson 
surely had been on her way to Waver- 
ley Place with Ilien Siu an hour or two 
ago. What had happened? 

The two met in a small ante-room, 
but only for a moment. 

“ Yes. It is Ilien,” Miss Gibson 
said, her face very grave. “ I can’t 
tell you about it now. She was struck 
down by an automobile while we were 
on our way to you; we fear she is badly 
hurt internally. The doctor has to 
make an examination, but Ilien will 
not permit it until you are here to give 
her the ether.” 

Mary did not speak, had not spoken ; 
there was no need. Without an in- 
stant’s delay she followed the nurse 
into the adjoining room where she 


90 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 

found lying on the narrow hospital bed 
the young Chinese girl student she had 
learned to know and love. Ilien Siu 
smiled when she saw Mary as if with a 
sense of sudden comfort and relief, 
then held out one hand, tiny and dim- 
pled like a child’s. She looked singu- 
larly unchanged, Mary reflected; per- 
haps the situation was not to be tragic 
after all. 

The physician, who stood a little 
apart, his watch in his hand, Mary 
vaguely realized was unfamiliar in the 
hospital, being in the uniform of a Brit- 
ish medical officer. This did not sur- 
prise her, nor was she surprised when 
Ilien with brightening eyes said sim- 
ply, glancing in his direction : 

“ Dr. Earle, this is Dr. Balfrey; he 
is an honoured friend of mine. He 
says he will join you in the care of me.” 


BAOHELOE MAIDS AT HOME 91 


The fact that Mary recognized then 
“ the mysterious Major ” of the Cum- 
berland, of whom she had more than 
once had sight before the end of the 
voyage, seemed then a matter of the 
smallest possible consequence. 


VIII 


CONCERNING ILIEN SIU 

I T was after midnight when Mary 
Earle, white and spent, dragged 
herself up the long flights of stairs 
in the apartment house, the elevator 
being off duty, and let herself in 
quietly at her own door. 

The living-room was lighted by a 
single, shaded electric bulb. Kate 
Quimby, who had been dozing in her 
padded kimono, came to meet her, re- 
moved her hat and cloak, made her sit 
down in the armchair from which she 
had risen, and, before either had spoken 
a word, placed a cup of steaming hot 
milk on a tabouret by her side. Mary 

looked up, response in her eyes. 

92 


CONCEENING ILIEN SIU 


93 


“ Good girl/' she murmured with a 
little twisted smile, then drank the milk 
with due appreciation, Kate watching 
her the while, with maternal eyes. 

“Now I can find my voice, Katie,” 
Mary began, leaning back and stretch- 
ing out her long arms in an expressive 
gesture. “ I was so sorry not to tele- 
phone you but there was not a minute 
for it. It was Ilien Siu.” 

“Mary!” Kate exclaimed, dis- 
mayed. 

“ Yes, she was run down about four 
o’clock by an automobile at the corner 
of Broadway and Twenty-third Street. 
The spine is desperately injured.” 

Mary spoke quietly but her face was 
pain-drawn and haggard. 

“ Do you know how it happened? 
Was she alone? ” 

“Janet Gibson was with her. They 


94 OONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


were coming here, you know. Janet 
told me something about it; it is very 
strange. They started to cross the 
street, not precisely together, but each 
for herself at the same moment. Janet 
lost Ilien from view for a little after 
she herself had reached the opposite 
sidewalk. When she caught sight of 
her again, to her horror she saw that 
the child had stopped short about half- 
way across, her eyes fixed, Janet 
thought, on a man in khaki who had 
just passed her and whose appearance 
startled her. Then the traffic closed 
between them. When it cleared a lit- 
tle there was shouting and confusion 
and Ilien was being carried by two po- 
licemen almost directly past where 
Janet stood.” 

“ How very dreadful,” groaned 
Kate, 


CONCEENING ILIEN SIU 


96 


Mary was silent for a little, then 
continued: 

“Janet directed everything, that is 
the only consolation. They took her 
into a shop. Ilien was conscious and 
as unperturbed as she always is, — that 
Oriental submissiveness of hers stands 
her in good stead now.” 

“ Is there any hope? ” 

Mary shook her head doubtfully, her 
eyes downcast. 

“It is not fully determined,” she 
continued a moment later. “ The 
case is not chiefly in charge of the hos- 
pital surgeons. This officer, the sight 
of whom startled Ilien when she was 
crossing the street, it seems, was a doc- 
tor whom she had known and worked 
with two or three years ago in China- 
town. She was herself doing nursing 
there that summer. Poor little thing. 


96 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 

how brave she has been, and how little 
we have cared to enter into her strug- 
gles, Kate,” and for the first time 
Mary’s voice broke. “ Well,” she be- 
gan again, “ Ilien loved this doctor be- 
cause he was very good to her people 
in their poverty and helplessness, but 
she had seen nothing of him for a long 
time. As far as I can gather the sud- 
den, unexpected recognition startled 
her so that she lost the sense of her 
danger for just those few seconds. It 
is a terrible crossing.” 

“ I suppose this doctor never 
knew ” 

“ Oh, yes. It had been observed 
that he wore the caduceus . . .” 

Mary hesitated, Kate fancied seeming 
a little confused. “ Ilien, as I said, 
was conscious and her first words to 
Janet, there in the shop where they 


CONOEENING ILIEN SIU 


97 


took her, were that some one follow this 
man and bring him to her. She knew, 
you see, that he would come. In fact, 
I think he was already bent in that 
direction, a doctor being called for. 
He helped Janet to bring Ilien in 
the ambulance to our hospital, and 
I think on the way he gave her his 
promise that he would take care of 
her.’’ 

“ That won’t make any difBculty, I 
hope, with our hospital doctors? ” 

Mary was silent. 

“ You didn’t know this man? ” asked 
Kate. 

“ I know him now. He brought me 
home.” 

“ Good for him. Do you like him? 
Do you think he will do as well as our 
own . . . ? 

Mary had risen now to prepare for 


98 CONSCEIPTS OP CONSCIENCE 


bed. Kate, realizing anew her weari- 
ness, exclaimed: 

“ You j)oor love, I won’t ask you an- 
other question.” 

‘‘ I will tell you about the doctor to- 
morrow. I really am too tired now, 
Kate. He is all right. But I’ll an- 
swer the questions I know you must 
have answered to-night.” 

Standing in her chamber doorway 
Mary then summed up briefly the tale 
of Ilien’s injuries and of the tentative 
j)rognosis. The girl might live a fort- 
night, even longer, but there was little 
hope of recovery. This Ilien herself, 
naturally, did not now know. 


IX 

CONSCRIPTION 

i ^HEN we agree, Dr. Earle, 
I on the treatment to be fol- 
lowed? You are as con- 
vinced as I that it would be useless to 
operate farther? ” 

It was Dr. Minot Balfrey who 
spoke. Mary gave sorrowful assent. 
Several days had elapsed since Ilien 
Siu had suffered her accident. They 
two were seated in the office of one of 
the hospital surgeons, who, having 
shared in the consultation just closed, 
had excused herself, begging them to 
use the office freely. 

As question and comment concern- 
99 


100 CONSCEIPTS OF COI^SCIENCE 


ing the case followed, a desultory 
thought or two strayed through Mary’s 
consciousness ; — she need have had 
no misgiving lest the hospital staff 
would look with disfavour upon 
Major Balfrey’s entrance upon their 
domain. It was Ilien’s right to choose 
him, but more than that, it was obvious 
now that his coming into a certain rela- 
tion with the local staff was counted an 
enviable honour. For plainly this 
man was hard pressed by many who 
would gladly have lionized him as a 
war hero of high distinction. Mary 
was able to sit thus vis-a-vis with the 
Major (he was still most often given 
his military title) without discomfort 
for him, for herself. She was con- 
vinced now that Captain Preston’s sur- 
mise was well founded; some recon- 
struction of the marred visage had 


CONSCEIPTION 


101 


taken place, rendering it by no means 
normal, but by no means repulsive. 
The eyes were spared; but in them 
lurked a sadness unchanging even 
when he smiled. These considerations 
faded quickly from Mary’s mind, for 
now the Major was speaking of the 
mournful waste, as it seemed, of the 
little Chinese student’s valorous strug- 
gle to gain her profession. 

Some note of complete finality in his 
words gave Mary a sharp contraction 
of heart. 

He answered the appeal in her eyes 
only by a significant motion of his 
hand. 

“ I think she wishes to have some 
private talk with you, Dr. Earle,” he 
said. “ There seems to me no reason 
why you should fend it off ; let her talk, 
not just now perhaps, but by and by. 


102 CONSCEIPTS OP CONSCIENCE 


It will do no harm. I can see that the 
child has a heavy load on her heart.” 

“She knows?” Mary murmured; 
the question was not easy to ask. 

“ Yes, I could not evade her ques- 
tion, although this should have been for 
you to do. It is a tremendous prob- 
lem, China, — is it not? ” he continued, 
seeking perhaps the aid of the imper- 
sonal. “ When you consider that a 
fourth of our race are Chinese and that 
to-day only about six men in a hundred 
in China, and one woman in a thousand, 
can even read, it gives us pause in our 
glorification of human progress. Com- 
mon sense would seem to suggest prae- 
tical measures of uplift over there.” 

“ I sometimes wonder,” said Mary 
slowly, “ if now, after the war, there 
will not develop among us at least 
some slight sense of world responsibil- 


CONSCEIPTION 


103 


ity. Even toward China/’ with which 
she rose. The consultation was plainly 
over. 

Major Balfrey rose also and turned, 
looking abstractedly from the window. 
As he stood thus no mark of the havoc 
wrought in his face by shell-fire was 
visible; Mary suddenly perceived the 
strength and nobility of his face and 
head. Something of unconscious com- 
mand in his bearing caused the sol- 
dierly element in the man to predomi- 
nate over the professional, she thought. 
The wicked wreck of his native har- 
mony of physique smote her as it had 
not before and her breath quickened. 

“ ‘Even toward China,’ ” he re- 
peated. “ Yes, it is easier to give our- 
selves body and soul for Europe than 
for Asia, is it not? The human kin- 
ship is closer. I am inclined to think 


104 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


that only the missionary temperament 
is sufficiently gifted with imagination 
to enter into vital sympathy with Ori- 
entals/’ 

Mary was now at the office door. 

“We hardly look upon missionaries 
and those who send them as highly im- 
aginative, do we? ” she turned to say. 
“ Do you really think there is a mis- 
sionary temperament? ” 

“ Why, yes. I think so,” Major 
Balfrey replied reflectively. “ The 
man of that temperament, or the 
woman, volunteers, you know, from 
youth up, so to speak. It is in the 
blood.” 

“ There are others, I suppose,” said 
Mary, “ who have not the volunteers’ 
vision but become conscripts under or- 
ders from conscience.” 

“ Conscripts of conscience,” re- 


CONSCEIPTION 


105 


peated the Major. “ Where have I 
heard that phrase? It is a good one.’’ 

‘‘ I have noticed it in a poem by 
Percy McKaye. Good-morning,” and 
the door closed on Mary. 


X 

A SUPREME CHALLENGE 


A WEEK had passed. Mary 
Earle sat beside Ilien Siu’s bed 
in the narrow hospital cham- 
ber which was irradiated with light of 
the setting sun. The figure outlined 
beneath the counterpane had shrunk to 
what seemed the proportions of a child. 
The face once rounded and blooming 
was sunken, the features sharpened, 
the eyes abnormally large. Still the 
smile with which Ilien gazed in Mary’s 
face was of piercing sweetness and 
there was only weakness, not agitation, 
in her voice when she spoke. 

“ The others call you Merle, may I 
also? ” she asked. 


106 


A SUPEEME CHALLENGE 107 


“ I want you to. You are very dear 
to me.” 

“You are kind and you speak truth, 
— you and Dr. Balfrey. You cannot 
know how good a man he is ; you have 
not seen him, as I have, in the very, 
very hot summer, working day and 
night among the Chinese, down in the 
worst parts of New York. He is one 
of the Jesus Christ men. Merle.” 

Mary smiled and touched tenderly 
the soft black cloud of hair above 
Ilien’s brow. 

“ What a beautiful thing to say of 
any one,” she said. “ What is it you 
want to find, Ilien? Can I help? ” 

“It is only this; I have it now.” 
As she spoke the girl drew from under 
her pillow a tiny folded leaflet. 

“ I have three things, or four, to give 
you. Merle,” she said softly, “ but this 


108 CONSOEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


is the best. It is truer than the gold 
of my chain which you will wear for 
me, and clearer than the topaz, the 
charm which hangs from it. This is 
the very truth about us,” saying which 
she slipped the leaflet into Mary’s hand. 
“ This is the way we think and live in 
China, the best of us.” 

Mary glanced at a title on the nar- 
row sheet. It need not have been, and 
the author’s name, — that of a woman 
physician. A heart-sickening pang 
smote her. Why had not she, Mary 
Earle, known how to write a thing like 
that? Why had she never until this 
hour concerned herself vitally with her 
friend’s heroic purpose, with what lay 
behind it? The passion of grief and 
remorse, albeit kept in strong control, 
swayed her soul inwardly. 

“ I shall read it and always keep it. 


A SUPEEME CHALLENGE 109 


Ilien,” she said, and her voice did not 
tremble. 

Again the smile, but it passed 
quickly and for a moment Ilien’s eyes 
were fastened on Mary’s face in a sud- 
den mortal appeal. 

“ Merle, I have something I must 
say,” Ilien’s voice was as if she were 
now in breathless haste. “If it is 
wrong you will forgive. . . . You 

know how I have thought of nothing, 
day or night, all these years but be- 
ing ready to go back and help my 
people. . . . But that is over. 
. . . I cannot. . . . You, oh 

Merle, you do not know what our 
women . . . our little children 

suffer ... we have not talked of 
that before . . . but now . . . 

is it too late? . . .” 

Mary, watching the white face, not- 


110 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


ing the fluttering breath, keeping her 
finger on the pulse, bent her head. 

“You can talk a little more, dear, 
do not hurry so. ... We have 
time ”... to herself she added, 
“ a very little time, now.” 

Ilien’s face relaxed to its wonted 
passive calm. 

“ That is good,” she murmured. 
“ They suffer more than is human to 
suffer, — our poor people. . . . 

Our doctors know only sorcerer’s craft, 
not mercy, not science. Our little ba- 
bies die fast. Merle . . . seventy 

in each hundred. Our women are tor- 
tured, yes, terribly tortured . . . 

and so few Christian doctors come. 

. . . Here you have between two 

streets perhaps ten, — perhaps twenty. 
With us there is often, for two million 
people, — yes, more than that — one 


A SUPEEME CHALLENGE 111 


doctor. ... I see by your face, 
Merle, that you believe me; you com- 
prehend now what it must be that I 
can, after all, help nothing.” 

Mary nodded; this time words 
would not come. There was a silence, 
and then, like the voice of a third per- 
son Mary heard her own voice. It was 
asking, — 

“ What can I do, Ilien? ” 

The answer came direct with death’s 
own urgency. 

“ You can go for me, in Christ’s 
name. You are ready now. I had 
still a year. There will then be gain, 
not loss.” 

Mary took both the pale hands in 
hers and looked down into the face, 
meeting its poignant appeal full and 
steadily. 

“Yes, dear Ilien. You can trust 


112 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


me. I am ready. I shall go in your 
place and do my best. I am your sub- 
stitute, God helping me.” 

The smile which flickered over the 
parted lips, at first incredulous, was a 
heavenly radiance when it had reached 
the eyes. The moment, supreme to 
both, passed. Ilien, satisfied, turned 
her head on the pillow, murmured, 
“ God bless you, now I can rest,” then, 
exhausted, her hands folded on her 
breast, her eyelids dropped and she fell 
asleep. 


XI 

A MESSAGE FROM THE SHADOW 

** T X R. EARLE, may I take you 
home?’’ 

Mary, having reached the 
outer door of the hospital, was sur- 
prised to hear Major Balfrey’s voice 
behind her. It was six o’clock in the 
morning; she was homeward bound, 
having kept the vigil in Ilien’s chamber 
since ten the previous night, alone save 
for Janet Gibson who had joined her 
there at intervals. 

“ You see I have a message to de- 
liver to you which is really imperative,” 

the Major added seriously, as, noting 
113 


114 CONSOEIPTS OP CONSCIENCE 


her assent, he went forward to open the 
door of his car which stood waiting. 
In another moment they were moving 
forward slowly, headed for Washing- 
ton Square. 

“ Was there any change during the 
night? Did she give any sign of con- 
sciousness while you were with her? ’’ 
he asked. 

Mary shook her head, saying, 
‘‘ None. I think there will be none 
after this.” 

“ I am sure of it,” he rejoined. 
“ She will scarcely last the day out.” 

“ You spoke of a message ” 

“ Yes. It is from Ilien herself to 
you. I spent an hour with her, you 
know, last evening, while you were 
resting.” 

“ She was awake then — conscious? ” 

“ Yes, much of the time.” 


A MESSAGE FEOM THE SHADOW 116 


“ Was she satisfied ... at 
rest? ” Mary asked the question with 
intense anxiety. 

“ Perfectly so, except on one single 
point. . . . Her strong common 

sense was at work, Doctor, to the last 
conscious minute. She told me with 
remarkable clearness, and with a joy 
which I found affecting, of your prom- 
ise earlier in the day that you would go 
to China as a medical missionary in her 
place. But she had one misgiving and 
very naturally so. She felt that in her 
explicit challenge to you to go to China 
she had taken an unfair advantage of 
you at an emotional crisis — of your 
sympathy, your affection for her, your 
conscientiousness. It cannot be de- 
nied that this is true in some 
sense ” 

‘‘You did not let Ilien think a thing 


116 CONSOEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


like that!” cried Mary in sharp dis- 
may. 

‘‘No. I simply received her mes- 
sage to you; it was, that neither she 
nor God, — this is as she expressed it, 
— would hold you to any promise if 
not made willingly, and according to 
your best judgment and afterthought.” 

“ And now I can never reassure her! 
Oh, Major Balfrey, why did I leave 
her for one single moment? ” At 
last Mary’s stress of feeling had its 
way. 

“ Please do not allow yourself to 
grieve on that score; there is no need. 
She was perfectly reassured.” 

“ How? How could she have 
been? ” 

“ I told her that I knew you had 
made your promise with a full sense of 
all that is involved in renunciation here 


A MESSAGE FEOM THE SHADOW 117 


and all of deprivation and difficulty in 
the field, but that I knew of certainty 
that it was made freely and gladly, 
that I even knew that you had al- 
ready, before this, contemplated such 
a step.” 

Receiving no word of response. 
Major Balfrey turned his head, glanc- 
ing at Mary. To his surprise her eyes 
seemed to flood him with the light of 
her wordless gratitude. He took her 
hand in his, but said nothing; in his 
face was the reverence a man shows 
as he approaches things divine. Re- 
leasing her hand he broke the tension 
with a low laugh, saying: 

“ Of course I did not actually know 
all this but — you see — I knew you- 
Essentially I knew it must be true.” 

“ It is true, perfectly true,” Mary 
rejoined. “ I could not have given my 


118 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


promise on the instant if my mind had 
not been in preparation for just that 
challenge. It was all I needed to make 
my way clear.” 

‘‘ Still, Dr. Earle, I am not ready 
by any means to say unqualifiedly that 
I would think you justified in carry- 
ing out a purpose entered into under 
such stress. I should advise at least 
a few years’ delay. . . 

“ I hardly think you would. Major 
Balfrey, if it were your own case,” 
Mary broke in. “ Did you take a few 
years to consider the call to go to 
France? You went over, I believe, 
before we entered the war.” 

“We appear to have been equally 
precipitate, I admit, there; at least I 
judge we must have gone overseas 
about the same time, — you working 
with the French, I with the British 


A MESSAGE FROM THE SHADOW 119 


forces. But, you see, that situation 
called for impulsive action.” 

Mary was silent, not disposed to ar- 
gument, the less because she had an 
undefined sense that Major Balfrey 
was not speaking now from real con- 
viction. 

However, after a little she com- 
mented: 

“ If anything ever ealled for what 
you describe as impulsive action it 
would seem to me to be the situation in 
China as Ilien knows it. If it is im- 
pulsive to begin trying to help over 
there after we have looked on calmly 
all these centuries, then, for Heaven’s 
own sake, let us be impulsive! ” 

The Doctor listened closely but 
made no direct reply. 

“ Then you are actually planning to 
gb to China to practice medicine?” 


120 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


The question came as they turned into 
Waverley Place. 

“ If the Board will send me — ^next 
Autumn. Of course I may not be 
found eligible.” 

“ I should be under the painful ne- 
cessity myself of recommending you, 
as far as the professional side is con- 
cerned, if the Board appealed to me.” 

The car stopped. Mary sprang to 
the pavement, paused there to thank 
Major Balfrey and to say good-bye. 
Her face, which had been wan with 
watching and grief, now grown young 
again and her cheeks rose-red. 


XII 

MAECHING ORDERS 

could not have done 
¥ otherwise, Merle; it is the 
right thing, the only reconcil- 
ing thing.” 

It was evening; the quiet room was 
dusky; the windows, opened wide, let 
in the fresh Spring air. Mary Earle 
lay on a low divan ; Kate Quimby, who 
had just spoken, sat beside her. They 
were, as they wished to be, alone. 

“ The only reconciling thing,” Mary 
repeated the words softly, under her 
breath, then they were silent. She had 
returned at an early hour that morn- 
ing to her post in the hospital; there 
121 


122 CONSCKIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


she had remained Avithin the shadow 
of death until four o’clock, when Ilien’s 
flickering breath was quenched. Now 
she had had time, at last, to speak with 
her good comrade Kate of that which 
had entered in to change her own out- 
look on life by way of Ilien’s tragic de- 
feat. 

Kate broke the silence which fol- 
lowed the repetition of her own words, 
saying quietly; 

“ You cannot guess all that this 
means to me. Now, Merle, I have 
courage to tell you that my mind is 
made up to go to India, myself, next 
year, after I get my diploma.” 

“ Can you be in earnest? It is so 
sudden — so startling someway.” 

“ Not as sudden as you think and it 
is your own doing, anyway, in part. 
But I can’t say that any credit goes 


MAECHING OEDEES 


123 


to you, Merle, on that aeeount. I 
think, at the time, you had never 
thought of Foreign Missions except as 
something people’s grandmothers oc- 
cupied themselves with.” 

“ I have certainly been innocent of 
any exalted designs in your direction,” 
and Mary smiled a little. “ Please dis- 
close when and how I had this extra- 
ordinary influence upon you.” 

“ You wrote me a long letter just 
after we came back from France; in it 
you described — pretty well, too. Merle 
— a ‘ furloughed saint ’ from India 
whom you met at a missionary meet- 
ing.” 

“ I remember her perfectly; it would 
be impossible to forget her. Was I 
unconsciously sowing good seed then 
in my Katie’s mind? I truly had 
never realized the situation myself at 


124 CONSOEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


all until that day. It has worked in 
me ever since.” 

“ Very well. Your missionary from 
India told of the closing of a woman’s 
hospital, over there, the only one in 
some wide region, for lack of doctors, 
and you said, ‘ For sweet mercy’s sake, 
if they are going to open hospitals, 
why don’t they see to it that they have 
doctors to run them? ’ Of course you 
brought yourself up standing as soon 
as you framed the question.” 

“ Obviously if women don’t volun- 
teer as missionary physicians it would 
be difficult to obtain them, would it 
not? ” interjected Mary. 

“ Now I have always read and heard 
more than you seem to have, about 
conditions in China and India; I had 
known some missionaries and yet, — 
really it seems all the less excusable — 


MARCHING ORDERS 


125 


it had never once occurred to me as a 
possibility, until I read that letter of 
yours, Merle, that I could go myself.” 

“ And you began to think about it 
then? ” 

“ Rather casually at first. I can’t 
say that I was keen about welcoming 
the notion, but the pressure of the aw- 
ful lack of sane medical practice in 
India took possession of me.” 

“ I remember, Kate, the day that 
Ilien was run down, when the girls 
were here chattering about what they 
should do after we graduate, where to 
settle, how to get their kites up and 
all that, that you said something about 
India.” 

“ It was that night that I decided 
the question, while I was alone here. 
There was something so — bizarre, pos- 
itively — in sensible, intelligent, trained 


126 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIEl^CE 


Christian women hunting everywhere 
for a place to practice medicine where 
there were not too many rival doctors 
already on the spot, here at home, and 
utterly ignoring those vast, uncared- 
for populations in the Orient where 
they are so mortally needed. The lack 
of all human proportion in the situa- 
tion, the sheer disregarding of Christ’s 
will that His disciples go out to succour 
and redeem all nations smote full upon 
me. For is not the question for us, if 
we are Christian, not where we can 
gain most, but where we are needed 
most? It seemed perfectly clear to 
me, and the matter settled itself then 
and there. That is, supposing I am 
the kind of a girl they want.” . 

‘‘ But Kate, why haven’t you told 
me before? ” 

“ How could I? Think what these 


MAEOHING OEDEES 


127 


weeks have been for you. And then 
too, I couldn’t dream that you would 
see it quite as I did. I dreaded try- 
ing to explain.” 

“ You would. But do you see how 
with both of us we can find our way 
now to go on this strange, new adven- 
ture in Christ’s name without much 
hesitation because of having once 
heard and answered marching orders, 
when we volunteered to go overseas? 
It simplifies, doesn’t it? Really that 
was in many ways harder, — it was 
surely harder for our families, there 
being actual personal peril for us to 
meet. The separation from home was 
as complete and bade fair to last as 
long — for you know we enlist for 
China and India only for a seven or 
even five year term. But that appeal 
was hardly made before we volun- 


128 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


leered to go. It was a matter of 
course.” 

“ Oh, Merle, what if Christian men 
and women in this country some day 
respond to Christ’s call to minister to 
the needs of the world like that, — ^no 
heroics, just as a matter of course! ” 

Mary had left the divan; she stood 
now in the window, overlooking the sea 
of roofs with lights everywhere like 
constellations seen through a delicate 
haze. 

For a long time neither spoke. 
Then Mary said, musingly, coming 
back to the present: 

“ To-morrow is another day, and on 
the third day Ilien will be buried. 
Then life begins again — but not life on 
the old terms. Ilien is not dead; it is 
for me to make her live on.” 

After another pause Kate said: 


MAEOHING OEDEES 


129 


“ You have had no time yet to let 
the Springfield people know, nat- 
urally.” 

“ Not yet. That does not intimi- 
date me. They will take it like the 
true souls they are, as they did before. 
But I have no end of things to think 
of, Kate.” 

“ One of them is Constance Chilton. 
She is on your trail.” 

“ Oh dear! I had forgotten her ex- 
istence.” 

“ She has by no means forgotten 
yours. She was here to-day and 
wanted to come again to-morrow but 
I put her off. She seems to have some- 
thing serious on her mind.” 

“ I suppose that is possible.” 


XIII 

HONOURS 

M ay was nearly over and the 
splendour of J une in the air. 
The annual meeting of an 
eminent Medical Association, con- 
vened for several days in New York, 
was nearing its close. 

In the morning session of this, the 
last day of the conference, Mary 
Earle, coming into the hall alone, late, 
by a side entrance, slipped unnoticed 
into a vacant seat. Miscellaneous busi- 
ness, she found, was the order of the 
hour. Mary felt a touch of disap- 
pointment that nothing of vital inter- 
130 


HONOUES 


131 


est to her seemed to have place on the 
program. Her days were crowded 
now, graduation being near at hand; 
she had missed the earlier sessions and 
even now had come for personal rather 
than professional reasons. 

Then her interest quickened, even 
her pulse, perhaps, for a member rose 
and made a distinctly enthusiastic little 
speech, close beside her. In this speech 
he declared that, inasmuch as one of 
their number had been signally hon- 
oured recently, it was in order that an 
expression of congratulation be re- 
corded. The speaker alluded not 
chiefly, he said, to the fact that Dr. 
Minot Balfrey had received the Medal 
of Honour from the United States 
Government, for distinguished service 
in the field in performance of aid to the 
wounded, but that he had been invited 


132 CONSCRIPTS OP CONSCIENCE 


within a short time by the Freneh Gov- 
ernment to return to Franee in order 
to eooperate with eminent French sur- 
geons in measures for treatment of 
bone tuberculosis, a serious feature of 
that disease now a dark menace to the 
French nation. 

“How splendid!” thought Mary, 
feeling in her surprise at so much in- 
teresting news gladder than she had 
any “ call ” to, as the recommendation 
was put into effect. It was in fact in 
the hope of seeing Major Balfrey that 
she was here at the present moment, al- 
though not in the least for her own 
sake. 

Then she heard the Major’s own 
voice and realized that she had not 
come in vain. He could not engage, he 
said, in this work in France perma- 
nently, other concerns making even 


HONOUES 


133 


stronger demands upon him, but it was 
his purpose to sail at once for France 
and give himself to this emergency 
work for a year at least. 

As the Major stood to speak Mary 
saw him, his place being unexpectedly 
near her; she noted, as he turned in 
her direction, the old, unchanging sad- 
ness in his eyes, the absence of all ela- 
tion in his voice. In another moment 
she was surprised to see him start to 
leave the hall. Instantly she left also. 
Now was perhaps her only time, for 
she must see him — that she had prom- 
ised. What if it were in her power, 
this very day, to change that look in 
his eyes, to bring human hope and joy 
back into his life? 

By fleetness of foot and by use of 
the side entrance Mary was able to 
intercept the Major as he left the 


134 CONSCEIPTS OP CONSCIENCE 


building. Seeing her at his elbow, 
breathless, unwontedly excited, he ex- 
claimed; 

“ What incomparable good fortune 
is this ! Dr. Mary Earle actually run- 
ning after me! ” 

“ I haven’t a doubt,” Mary replied, 
walking on rapidly beside him, “ that 
you are bent at this minute on doing 
your best to escape bores like me.” 

“ I am certainly trying to escape the 
well-meant attentions of my brethren,” 
was the rejoinder, “ but as for bores 
like you — ^well, that’s another story.” 

“ You can’t escape me anyway, so 
we won’t waste time on that. I have 
an important reason for seeing you. 
Now, Major Balfrey, seriously, can 
you give me a few minutes in which we 
can talk quietly? ” 

You speak, my dear young friend, 


HONOUES 


135 


like a reporter. I am now familiar 
Avith their method. There is nothing 
on earth I would rather do, believe me, 
but. Dr. Earle, to do it I must go on es- 
caping ! Medical men of all shades will 
be after me for — pulls — to put it 
brutally, of course for congratulations, 
too, all that sort of thing. To be quite 
clear, I am at this moment fleeing for 
my life. Can you hide me success- 
fully? If you could arrange luncheon 
for instance — in seclusion? If so I 
shall be only too happy to talk with 
you quietly for hours together.” 

Laughing and still hurrying on, 
Mary considered. They had reached 
Broadway ; clocks were striking a quar- 
ter to twelve. 

“ I can hide you! ” she cried. “ Fol- 
low me to a place of safety! Don’t 
you feel as if we were in a movie? ” 


136 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


With this she led the way down a 
numbered street to a staircase which 
they climbed and which brought them 
to the entrance of a small and recher- 
che tea room. 

“ No one comes here at this time of 
day. You can breathe freely now, my 
friend.” 

Laughing merrily at their little by- 
play, they seated themselves at a small 
table in an airy alcove, ordered such 
luncheon as the place provided, thus 
initiating the threatened interview. 

“ First of all,” Mary began, “ you 
are not yet at the end of your troubles. 
Major Balfrey. You are now at my 
mercy. Have I thus far bored you 
with congratulations? ” 

‘‘ Indeed you have not; ” the Major 
spoke with slight asperity. “ I have 
felt your silence keenly.” 


HONOUES 


137 


“ Not until half an hour ago have I 
heard a word of these honours which 
are falling thick and fast upon your 
head. Why have you not informed me 
of them? ” 

“ There was something about it in 
the papers,” he said, frowning. 

“ Do I have time to read papers? ” 
she cried. “ Please realize that I am 
getting ready for graduation — it is 
only two weeks off.” 

“ Ah, I see. Unluckily for myself 
I have never been able to devise meas- 
ures by which I could gain personal ad- 
mission to your presence, not having 
been invited to visit your house. You 
could hardly have looked for me to 

send you announcement ” 

Hardly! ” Mary interrupted, then 
stretched out her hand, her face beam- 
ing with unfeigned pleasure. “ I am 


138 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


perfectly delighted that you have re- 
ceived such recognition, Dr. Balfrey, 
that you are going in for such splendid 
service. My congratulations.” 

“ My thanks — they are honest to 
match.” 

“ When do you sail? ” 

“ Day after to-morrow.” 

For a while their talk was of the 
work in France, the necessitous and 
dreadful conditions, the demand for 
reconstruction in the habits of life of 
the people, and the like, then of the 
Major’s interesting prospect of collab- 
oration with French surgeons. But 
at last, perceiving that he was not 
minded to hold the conversation over 
long on himself, Mary, with a little 
toss of her head, declared that Major 
Balfrey was by no means to hnagine 
that she envied him. 


HONOUES 


139 


“ I have honours and opportunities 
myself, if you please,” was her chal- 
lenge. 

“ I have not the slightest doubt of 
that,” he answered; '"Cum laude for 
your diploma — that goes without say- 
ing ” 

“ Something better than that,” 
Mary broke in, flushing high; “here 
it is, right in my pocket,” and opening 
a small leather bag which lay beside 
her she took out a letter and laid it 
before her companion. 

“ Am I to read it? ” he asked 
gravely. 

“ You can, but I am afraid you are 
not interested enough for that. 
Simply, it is, in effect, my commission 
from our Mission Board to go out to 
China in September, there to engage 
as a Christian missionary in the prac- 


140 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSOIEKCE 


tice of Christian medicine and sur- 
gery.” 

“ My honours, so called, are small be- 
side that. Dr. Earle,” the Major said 
gently, handing her back the letter. 
“ Perhaps only you and I, being to- 
gether as we were in caring for Ilien 
Siu, can comprehend the full signifi- 
cance of this commission. I am glad 
your way to go to China is clear.” 

Mary’s eyes gave her response. 

“ How about your family? ” Major 
Balfrey asked, presently. “ This must 
have a painful side for them, I am sure, 
as well as for you.” 

“ They are made of the right stuff, if 
I do say so,” Mary replied. “ Of course 
it is not precisely easy for any of us. 
I sent them word of my change of plan 
the week that Ilien died. The next 
morning I received a telegram from 


HONOUES 


141 


my really illustrious grandmother, a 
message of just two Latin words: 
Nunc Dimittis/^ 

“ Now that was good, very good,” 
responded Balfrey. 

“ My mother wired, too, saying that 
if I am to practise medicine she con- 
siders China preferable to America — 
that sounds as if she felt it better to 
have me out of sight. That really 
isn't her point of view; she meant ex- 
actly what she said. My brother wrote 
me a rather humorous letter, with a 
serious touch, though. The gist of it 
was: if a good time of life is what 
you’re after, stay here; if it’s service 
of fellow-men, China is all right.” 

“ Very well put, and true enough 
in a way,” commented the Major 
thoughtfully, “ but I haven’t a doubt 
that a ‘ good time of life ’ would also 


142 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


be your portion, Mary Earle, — if 
you’ll excuse my leaving off the title 
this once — were you to be in Labrador 
or Madagascar or China. ‘ The mind 
is its own place.’ Perhaps you have 
heard that mentioned before.” 

Mary smiled happily and turned to 
receive the maid entering at the mo- 
ment with a tray containing enticing 
service of luncheon for two. 


XIV 

A CRITICAL COMMISSION 


f I AHE sun streamed through a 
I row of pink and white tulips 
set in the alcove window; the 
white curtains billowed back and forth 
in the breeze; fragrance from a jar of 
mignonette on the sill was wafted 
about the two who sat to break bread 
together as if they had been friends of 
long standing. 

Uppermost in Mary’s mind, how- 
ever, was the sense that she really 
hardly Imew this man facing her now 
at short range ; that, like a craven cow- 
ard, she shrank from intruding upon 

his personal life in pursuance of 
143 


144 CONSCRIPTS OP CONSCIENCE 


her commission. Moreover, the spur 
which her courage had received from 
the melancholy, never before, she 
thought, absent from his eyes, failed 
her now. Something of buoyancy in 
his mood seemed to have touched even 
that haunting shadow; for the moment 
it had vanished. None the less she had 
given her word to do this thing and 
must not falter. 

“ Major Balfrey, may I talk with 
you of my friend, Constance Chil- 
ton? ” she began valiantly enough as 
she perceived the Major’s interest in 
strawberries flagging. 

Surprise was distinctly percep- 
tible. 

“ Most certainly,” was the answer, 
but it is strange to find that you 
know each other.” 

“ I met her on the Cumberland 


A CEITICAL COMMISSION 145 


when we crossed, you know, or per- 
haps ” 

“ Yes, it is true. I did know later 
that she was on the ship, but not at 
the time. That was on the whole for- 
tunate, perhaps.” 

In her heart Mary thanked the 
Major for this opening. Quick in the 
up-take, she remarked : 

“You will not, I am sure, take it 
ill of me if I am so bold as to let you 
know that Miss Chilton confided in 
me on shipboard the story of the very 
sad affair . . .” Mary hesitated, 

then advanced again to the attaek, the 
Major showing no disposition to give 
further openings. “ I was convinced 
of her very real distress of mind. 
Major Balfrey, and of the sincerity of 
her regard for you.” 

He bent his head in acknowledgment 


146 COKSCEIPTS OF COKSCIENCE 


of her statement, a plait of perplexity 
between his brows, but he did not 
speak. 

“ Her sense of duty in severing your 
relations, however mistaken it may 
now seem, struck me as honest.” 

“ I see,” commented the Major dis- 
passionately. “ Miss Chilton is a very 
charming girl.” 

Some quality in this comment 
seemed to augur ill for Mary’s er- 
rand. Goaded to action she plunged 
resolutely ahead. 

“ Yes, she is a charming girl, but 
she is also a brave girl, brave enough 
to dare to do the unusual ” 

“ Why is she not brave enough to 
speak for herself instead of laying 
upon you an uncongenial task? ” 

“ I do not blame her for that. Major 
Balfrey. Any sensitive girl would 


A CEITICAL COMMISSION 147 


shrink from herself approaching, — in 
her own behalf — a man ” 

“ A man whom she had once 
promptly — released — so to speak, for 
reasons sufficiently obvious, no doubt. 
Yes, Mary Earle, I agree with you on 
that entirely, and we must not allow 
the charming Miss Chilton to approach 
such a faUiV pas by the twentieth part 
of one poor scruple.” 

Mary was silent in her turn. Ob- 
viously the initiative had passed to the 
Major. He did not appear to find it 
embarrassing. 

“ Let me help you. Miss Chilton 
has been, we will say, so brave, or so 
unusual, as to ask you to mediate be- 
tween herself and me with a view to 
restored relations.” 

A pause, but no comment. 

“ But thus far you have not carried 


148 CONSCEIPTS OF COISTSCIENCE 


out her commission, have not stated 
her position, finding it not altogether 
easy. That is right. Now, I have 
known Miss Chilton longer than you 
have; probably I know the reactions 
of her temperament better. For her 
own sake you must refrain from per- 
forming her errand in order to save 
her from inevitable awkwardness. If 
Miss Chilton knew the future to which 
I stand committed she would neces- 
sarily have to beat a second retreat.” 

“ But indeed. Major Balfrey, I 
think there you are mistaken. Al- 
though she did not mention it to me, 
I can see now, looking back at this last 
conversation with her, that Miss Chil- 
ton must have known then of your be- 
ing called to go to France. I do not 
think that would cause her the slight- 
est hesitation.” 


A OEITICAL COMMISSION 149 


“ Very true. How about China? I 
am going to China, Dr. Earle, when 
I have done a year’s work in France.” 
Mary was blankly astonished. 

“ As an investigator? ” she asked. 
“ On the Rockefeller Foundation? ” 

“ Not in the very least,” was the 
quick response. 

“ Under the Red Cross? ” 

“ Under the Cross of Christ. There 
is for me no other name. If they will 
take me I am to go out, just as you are 
going now, as a medical missionary. I 
have worked more or less among the 
Chinese in this city and have become 
strongly interested in them, have got 
a little hold on their language. There 
is real character foundation there to 
build upon. But China needs the 
Christian religion more than she needs 
modern medicine — and that is a good 


160 CONSCRIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


deal to say. I should not care to go on 
a simply scientific or humanitarian 
basis.” 

Before Major Balfrey had finished 
speaking Mary had definitely with- 
drawn Constance Chilton from the 
running. There was nothing more for 
her to say on that head. But a few 
words still belonged to the Major. 

“ And so we will save Miss Chilton 
from all further embarrassment by 
letting you report to her that you 
learned, before committing yourself in 
this regard, that I was pledged to go 
to China, after a year or so in France, 
as a missionary, and that learning this 
you felt it wiser not to proceed fur- 
ther. She will be very grateful to you. 
So shall I, Mary Earle. But I am 
grateful to you for very much higher 
service than this. Until I met you I 


A CEITICAL COMMISSION 151 


did not quite know how divine a thing 
a woman may become when her life is 
inspired by the love of Christ.” 

As he spoke with a solemnity she had 
not known in him hitherto, Minot Bal- 
frey’s face showed the reality of his 
homage. 

“ I have much to thank you for,” he 
continued. “You have helped me to 
become, like yourself, a conscript of 
conscience. Surely if the war has 
taught us anything, — and if it has not, 
we are incapable of learning, it is that 
life is given us not for self-gain, self- 
pleasing, self-ministration, but for 
service. The question for a mature 
Christian man or woman becomes 
simply, where is the need greatest for 
the kind of service I can render? ” 

“ And looking into this question you 
have found China the answer? ” asked 


162 CONSOEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


Mary, finding voice at length. “ It 
might almost seem as if you ought to 
remain on in France on this tubercu- 
losis commission. You can do so 
much.’’ 

“ There is, of course,” he answered 
seriously, “ a prodigious work to be 
done in France and I am glad to have 
a part, if only a very small one, in that. 
It is possible I may find it best to re- 
main beyond the year I have set for 
myself, but I think not.” 

“ My heart aches for France.” 

‘‘ Yes, France appeals to us poign- 
antly because we see her ravaged to 
the verge of apparent peril of sinking 
from a high plane of national life to 
a lower. This peril is not, I believe, a 
real one. France has wonderful re^ 
siliency, she will spring back to her 
proper level as tempered steel will 


,A CEITIOAL COMMISSION 163 


spring after compression. The case is 
wholly different with China. There is 
a non-Christian nation which has never 
risen to a high plane of human life, 
but beholds it from afar and reaches 
out for it. The disaster, should the 
Chureh of Christ fail to go to her aid 
now and help her up to the higher 
plane, would be enormous.’’ 

“ Yes, it would be too dreadful to 
think of,” Mary echoed, then, with 
emotion added, “ How I wish Ilien 
could have known that you are to go 
and work among her people. Major 
Balfrey.” 

“ She did know it.” 

Mary’s joy and wonder did not need 
the words they could not find. 

“ Yes, in that hour I had with her, 
the evening before she died, you re- 
member? I told Ilien that I had fully 


154 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


decided, soon or late, to go to China 
as a medical missionary.” 

“Was she able to speak? To make 
you Imow what it meant to her? ” 

For a moment Balfrey did not reply, 
then, with an irrepressible quiver in 
his voice he said gently: 

“ Her eyes said all . . . but 

after a little I heard the child murmur 
words of Scripture . . . brokenly 

. . . they were not easy to recog- 

nize, but in the end I divined them 
. . lower still his voice fell as he 

repeated, “ Except a corn of wheat fall 
into the ground and die, it abideth 
alone, hut if it die, it bringeth forth 
much fruit/" 

When the Major spoke again it was 
to say in his wonted, matter-of-fact 
manner: 

“ When you think of it, if there had 


A CEITIOAL COMMISSION 155 


been no other reason, a man in my 
place could have done no less than vol- 
unteer for this service.” Noting 
Mary’s questioning glance, he added, 
“ I shall always have the thought to 
carry with me that it was the shock of 
unexpectedly seeing my poor, shot-up 
countenance, after the long interval in 
which we had not met, which caused 
the accident to Ilien. Now I suppose 
it may be time to look at our watches.” 

Mary rose. The moment, sur- 
charged with emotion, must, fortu- 
nately, be shaped by the outward con- 
ditions about them. 

“ Yes, you may have a few things to 
do, sailing day after to-morrow,” she 
said. They moved together to the 
door. “ We shall hardly meet again.” 

“ No, not on this side. But in 1920 
or 1921, if I am, as I hope to be, in 


156 CONSCEIPTS OF CONSCIENCE 


China, then we shall meet there, is it 
not so? ” 

“ China is a very large country, 
Major Balfrey.” 

“ But that is unimportant. We 
shall meet, Mary, if you permit it. 
That is a privilege which only you 
could deny me.” 


Printed in the United States of America 


ABOUT OTHER LANDS 


HENRY CHUNG 

The Oriental Policy of the United States 

With maps, i2mo, cloth, net $2.00. 

A plea for the policy of the Open Door in China, pre- 
sented by an oriental scholar of broad training and deep 
sympathies. The history of American diplomatic relation- 
ships with the Orient, the development of the various 
policies and influences of the western powers in China, 
and the imperilistic aspirations of Japan are set forth ad- 
mirably. 

CHARLES KENDALL HARRINGTON 

Missionary Amer. Baptist Fsrsign Miss, Society toJaPan 

Captain Bickel of the Inland Sea 

Illustrated, 8vo., cloth, net $1.75. 

“Especially valuable at this hour, because it throws a 
flood of light on many conditions in the Orient in which 
all students of religious and social questions are espe- 
cially interested. We would suggest that pastors generally 
retell the story at some Sunday evening service, for here 
is a story sensational, thrilling, informing and at the same 
time a story of^ great spiritual urgency and power.” — 
Watchman-Examiner. 

HARRIET NEWELL NOYES Canton, China 

A Light in the Land of Sinim 

Forty-five Years in the True Light Seminary, 
1872-1917. Fully Illustrated, 8vo., net $1.50. 

“An authoritative account of the work undertaken and 
achieved by the True Eight Seminary, Canton, China. 
Mrs. Noyes has devoted^ practically her whole life to this 
sphere of Christian service, and the record here presented 
is that of her own labors and those associated with her in 
missionary activity in China, covering a period of more 
than- forty-five years .” — Christian Work, 

MRS. H. G. UNDERWOOD 

Underwood of Korea 

A Record of the Life and Work of Horace G. 
Underwood, D.D. Illustrated, cloth, net $1.50. 

“An intimate and captivating story of one who labored 
nobly and faithfully in Korea for thirty-one years, pre- 
senting his character, consecration, faith, and indomitable 
courage.” — Missions. 


MISSIONS AT HOME AND ABROAD 


CAROLINE ATWATER MASON Author of" The Litile 
• " — Green God, etc. 

Conscripts of Conscience 

i2mo, cloth, net $i.oo. 

A plea in story form for volunteers for Medical Mission 
work in the Orient by a writer of recognized literary gifts. 
The heroic, the sacrificial, have been in continued evidence 
during our World-War, A parallel field of opportunity is 
here presented with every promise of equal stimulus to 
times of peace. 

ROBERT E, SPEER, LL.D, 

The Gospel and the New World 

i2mo, cloth, net $2.00. 

Dr. Speer’s qualifications for reviewing the situation 
need no recital. It is sufficient to indicate that with his 
customary force and clarity, he covers the whole subject 
of Foreign Missions in the light and darkness of war. 

CHARLES L. THOMPSON, D.D. 

The Soul of America 

The Contribution of Presbyterian Home Mis- 
sions. Illustrated, cloth, net $1.25; paper, net 50c. 

A lucid, clearly defined statement of what has been done 
on the North American continent, in Horae Mission field 
by the Presbyterian Church. 

WINIFRED W. BARTON 

John P. Williamson 

A Brother to the Sioux. Drawings by John 
Redowl. Illustrated, i2mo, cloth, net $1,75. 

“On the prairies Dr. Williamson spent a life of over 
eighty years crowded with adventures, hardships and toil 
as he laid out trails for civilization. Such men are our 
truest empire builders .’’ — Albert Wenz in The Dakota 
Farmer. 

ELIZABETH LEHMAN MYERS 

A Century of Moravian Sisters 

A Record of Christian Community Life. Illus- 
trated by F. J. Myers. Cloth, net $1.50. 

“Gives an impetus to the spirit of simple faith and 
practical devotion that cannot help but be far-reaching in 
its effect .’’ — Bethlehem Times. 

WILLIAM EARL LA RUE 

The Foundations of Mormonism 

i2mo, cloth, net $1.25. 

The author was brought up a Mormon, and knows the 
teachings and practices of Mormons by experience. This 
book is interesting, because it deals with important mat- 
ters, with a good sense of proportion, and is clearly stated. 








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